Fish Bird
by The Eternity Dragon
Summary: He had to somehow break the silence between then. 'I never meant to love you.' Sasuke said, 'I didn't want to, I never planned to.' 'Sasuke,' Naruto replied, 'you've ruined everything.' SasuNaru
1. Out of the thicket and into the woods

Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own Naruto or any of its character, this story is an entirely non-profit work by me, but I guess I just enjoy writing what I would do with the characters if I was in charge. (Thank goodness I'm not X3)

Chapter one

**Out of the thicket and into the woods**

* * *

_//**Note**: the title and theme is based on a Greek children's fairy tale about a turtle dove and a carp that fall in love. Due to the circumstances of their relationship the two have to deal with the insurmountable problem of how they are going to be together. Sappy? Yes (I can't help myself), but I thought it was cute when I read it. It inspired me to write this.//_

_// Also when you see this, it's some bodies inner thought process, usually Naruto's…although not now because it's mine… actually just instructions but you know what I mean…sorry I'll let you read now//_

* * *

_There are little rivulets of blood streaming down his body, and every time his feet strike the ground a jarring pain snaps up his spine ringing in his head. Sasuke Uchiha is moving himself forwards by sheer force of will power, his heart pumping explosively against his chest as he sucks in dry cold air. The blood is beginning to clot against his ivory skin, staining a brown sticky mess across his arms and down into a bloody pulp down about his toes. _

_It's rendering most of his limbs heavier then usual, like walking with two logs of ice that melt and slip under foot, burning the bare soil in a meandering trail of guilt._

_This really isn't good._

_Part of him suspects he's being followed, looking over his shoulder, eyes impenetrable inky black, or…or…but that's ridiculous…unless Itachi thought that he couldn't…wasn't able to do it. Was that it? Sasuke laughs, but whether in defeat or in defiance even he doesn't know. The sound catches in his throat and he coughs up a sticky black substance that trickles like coagulated treacle across his tongue. _

_Shit its working fast._

_Numbly he moves his hands to his face; part of him doesn't want to believe it's possible, that it is true, but even as he forms the signs with his numb fingers, pale and pallid in the light like torn ivory, the usual thrub of energy doesn't spool._

_Something in his wrist glints coldly up, as he tries again, and again…and again._

_Nothing happens._

_Slumping to the ground, boldly aware that he's bleeding everywhere, there's a disgustingly strong taste of copper in his mouth, he tries to ignore it but he thinks he just might be sick. His stomach wretches as he holds down the bile in his throat._

_For a moment he considers giving up, closing his eyes and calling hell's dark angels to drag back down into the smouldering sulphur pits, but a face flashes before him. _

_A touch, and a smell, a memory brushed up from long…long ago, loud noises and garish orange flickers, and hair guttering vividly gold haunts him, close enough to touch…… and despite everything he smiles. Tiny, faint, almost non-existent, and his heart beats, lub-dub in his chest, valves opening and closing with monotonous rhythm that quickens very slightly._

_But it's something at least, a little more then nothing at all._

_His mind presses him further, damn pride, it got him this far didn't it? It's not about to let you lie down now. If he's going to die, he's going to die fighting…and not before **him**._

_He presses one wrist to his mouth, licking away the blood and spitting out the congealed dried clod onto the grass somewhere beside him, teeth clamping down hard on that small oval sphere jutting out of his skin. The thing that stinks of metal, and acid and a little ammonia, it makes his skull ring like a bell and his eyes water the second his canines come into contact._

_Then comes the pain, white hot and blinding, so hot, so sudden that for a moment he passes out. Blistering bubbles exploding inside his ears and across his tongue, tapping on his teeth._

_He wakes up only to cough again, and more of the thick treacle travels up his throat and he chokes on it, lungs wracking as his stomach heaves aggressively from his abdomen and he falls onto his elbows, eyes streaming thick clear water._

_"This won't…" he thinks, as he wretches, "get the better of me…I won't…I have to… I have to tell him…"_

_Sasuke makes an effort to get up, but the black things glint again as he tries to summon chakra to his feet, it slices through his brain wielding pain like a scythe that shatters bone into dust._

_Dimly, he's very aware of how cold he is, and how his breath is crystallising on the cold night air, and somehow he's on his back, staring up into a dark canopy over his head. He doesn't know how far he's got to go, but he's under the vague inclination he can't go any further, not like this. _

_Never like this._

_He arches a little from the hips, tilts his head back and closes his eyes, creamy smooth expanse of the neck exposed in the dim light, as his mouth forms words almost silent, over and over again, a mantra prayed into earless dark._

_"Naruto…I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."_

* * *

There's a slight film of dirt covering Naruto Uzamaki's skin as he licks his dried lips and brushes strands of hair sunlight bright out of wide inquisitive eyes.

He's sitting high up in the crook of a huge branch running parallel to the ground, blood rushing hard and fast in his ears as he peers down behind a curtain of leaves.

_// It's been an hour and still nothing… I wonder…no… not again. They wouldn't do it again. //_

He's looking for signs of movement, the sudden movement of a bush or even the crumbling slide of a dirt clod. Not that he knows for sure there will be movement, but he's pretty sure he there would be. Most likely the type of enemy that's invisible, the sort that lurks in the shadows and then springs as silent and deadly as a panther, claws of steel raking into flesh drawing rivers of blood.

He shifts a little uncomfortably on the branch, he could sit here for hours more if he really had to, and that's _if _he really had to though, although he thinks he'd rather take the danger over watching grass grow, but that's just his opinion.

As it is his minds beginning to wander off the mission, simple as it is and completed…just keep a look out, maybe we're being followed?

_// Maybe, maybe not… Is it wrong that I want us to be in danger just for sheer amusements sake//_

Sitting idly by and watching the world go by is not how he likes to live his life…or at least how he's tried to live his life. All nineteen years of it, it's not a particularly long stretch of time he knows and he'd prefer it if the numbers continued to increase. But hey, at least he's reached double digits.

He feels his age sometimes (rarely even he admits), although Sakura frequently tells him he should act it more often (but kids have so much more fun then adults do!), he looks it to an extent. But not very many things have changed.

His hair is certainly as untameable as it has ever been, growing upwards sideways and then as if in delightful consideration down, although it's longer now framing his face, a sort of choppy cut that falls into his eyes, which are still the same cornflower blue that they've always been. He blows away an irritating strand now; the muscles of his jaw seem to ache from the inactivity, there's an itch starting on the tip of his toe…

"Oh god please don't, please don't…!!" he mutters barely audible, Kakashi-sensei would laugh if he could see him now. He'd never quite been able to see how you where supposed to get around this particular problem, Kakashi had always told him if worst comes to worst he would volunteer to cut the damned thing off.

Naruto thinks this is a little extreme, Kakashi asks him what's better, being disembowelled by a group of hungry cannibals or loosing your toe?

Naruto asks why cannibals but Kakashi won't ever answer; does Kakashi have a thing for cannibals? Maybe they're in that book he's always reading.

He sits for another half an hour in silent agony, willing his toe to stop itching, for it to just go away. But no such luck, in fact it spreads, moving stealthily across his entire foot. His foot obviously does not understand the importance of not moving. But he doesn't think a mental lecture on cannibals would do it any good…although if someone started nibbling on his foot now at least it might resolve the itching problem.

Naruto sneaks a furtive glance about him, he's quite hidden and can't see any sign of movement in the area, cussing quietly to himself he leans towards his foot, unaware of the fact the whole of his lower body is asleep, then he wobbles, slips, yells something unrepeatable and falls head first to the floor with all the grace that he had when he was twelve.

By the time he has finished blinking all of the tears from his eyes a shadow falls across his face and he looks up through the blur of pain his nose is creating to see Shikamaru and Kiba looking down on him, a slightly rueful expression on Kiba's face as he appears to be handing something over to Shikamaru.

"Couldn't you have stayed up there a little bit longer?" he asks hauling Naruto somewhat abruptly to his feet, "Ten more minutes and I would have won the bet!"

A bet? He'd been stuck up in that tree all that time for absolutely no reason at all?

"Hey!" he shouted, outraged, nose stinging like the plague, "What happened to all that duck and cover shit you guys where going on about before? You know the mission and oh god they're after us!"

"Well," Shikamaru began somewhat slowly, hands in his pockets looking quite as lazy and unconcerned as he always did, "it was a false alarm. We completed the mission early, we aren't expected back for another day, and I was tired."

"So all this time you've been sleeping?" Naruto asked somewhat incredulously, he didn't know why he was knocked for six, really he didn't, it's just they always got him every time.

They didn't have to answer, Kiba was grinning quite fiercely like he always did looking like a wolf as he did so, and Shikamaru had that faint detached smile, as if they where seeing the end of a particularly good practical joke performed on a younger brother.

"I hate you." Naruto projected fiercely locking his jaw stubbornly, he had leaves in his hair and his clothes stank of wood bark thanks to them, he would have stalked off if his leg hadn't been hurting so bloody much.

"No you don't," Kiba assured, wrenching him up by the elbow as he tried to turn away, only succeeding in wobbling a very short distance before he staggered, "it was revenge Naruto. You heard of that? For tattling to Lee about what happened last month."

Naruto snorted, "But it **_was _**your idea you son of a bitch, I took all that crap when you high tailed it out of there."

"It's wasn't **_my _**idea, it was yours."

"I was _drunk _Kiba, don't ever listen to me when I'm drunk. Besides, **you **dared me to."

"Well I was drunk too, and it was damned funny you little fox!"

"Why, what happened?" Shikamaru cautiously interjected, and then thinking about it breathlessly added: "If-it-has-anything-to-do-with-getting-Lee-naked-in-the-middle-of-the-side-walk-and-singing-the-Kohona-national-anthem-backwards-please-spare-me." Lee naked was not something he wanted to even contemplate…**_ever_**.

Naruto and Kiba both blinked at him simultaneously, "We should do that one day…" one mutters to the other and they both nod.

Shikamaru clears his throat.

"Well," Kiba explained in undertones, "he went hulk on us."

"He went what?"

"Hulk Maru. He really did, he's not lying! I thought he was going to kill….well me at any rate. We were only trying to shave off his eyebrows, you'd think we'd insulted his family and set fire to his house and underwear the way he was carrying on."

"When Lee gets drunk he sort of gets out of it, you know?" Kiba adds knowledgably "Well basically we got halfway there and he sort of came to and realised exactly what the hell we where doing to him."

"It wasn't pretty." Naruto agreed nodding his head over Kiba's shoulder.

"Neither was your face after he got through with you."

"Excuse me for not high tailing it out of there the second things got slightly dangerous."

"Slightly? Did he knock the remainders of your brain out too then? I wasn't the one splayed out cold on the floor with a foot mark on my face, was I? No, do you know why? It's called animal instincts my friend."

"He was wearing clothes when you did this right?" Shikamaru asked, his fore finger and thumb pressed against either side of the bridge of his nose.

"Erh, yes…why?"

"Good…because I wouldn't want to contemplate the idea of a drunk Lee without clothes…**_OR _**without eyebrows."

Naruto giggled, "Imagine Lee without clothes and eyebrows."

They all blanched.

"I feel sick!" Kiba told them, his eyes somewhat poppy, "I think I need to sit down."

Shikamaru let out a small burst of laughter and shook his head deciding to change the subject.

"I bet Sakura was pleased to find her boyfriend had toe imprints across his forehead."

Inwardly Naruto grimaced, he had hoped they could have steered clear away from the topic of Sakura for the entirety of the mission, apparently not.

_// The nosy busybodies that they are, of course they can't//_

His stomach clenched uncomfortably in his gut as if it where trying to wriggle out of his throat.

"Actually they where across my chin," he said with an easy smile, "and no, she wasn't very pleased at all really, quite the opposite."

"Yeah, well, women they don't really understand the principles of a good prank now do they?" Kiba pointed out placidly, watching sceptically as Naruto did a spectacular balancing act on one leg as he eased off his supporting arm, arms flapping wildly. He looked like he was having some sort of epileptic fit.

Both he and Shikamaru watched with a detached sort of interest as he fell again to the floor.

"But that's why she's going out with you right? So she can get a little less poker straight."

Naruto, whose head band had slipped down across his eyes, said with a hint of irritation stabbing through his chest, "Are you suggesting Sakura has a stick shoved up her arse?"

There was a pause, and then "Are you?" but this time the question was thrown at him by Shikamaru to both he and Kiba's surprise.

//_What did you say!?//_

"No," he admitted with something resembling a grimace, "but I think it's part of the reason why I like her. But I mean it's nothing compared to Sa-… I mean compared to some other people.

Opposites attract you know and all that stuff."

Although in truth he didn't really think it, he had done at one point…but that had been before he had met him and well…anything else in comparison just seemed to falter at the memory, touch, sound and smell.

There's really no replacing the gaping wound left by the remnants of an obsessive love now is there?

Naruto flushed wondering whether or not his thoughts had surfaced in his face, stumbling over the words somewhat as he said "It's in there knee high isn't it?", and as if to distract himself, pulled his head band and emblem back over his forehead once more.

But neither Kiba or Shikamaru seemed to notice this and inwardly he blew a great sigh of relief, but saw then they were exchanging coveted looks.

"So," Kiba asked once again helping Naruto up as he tried to shake the kinks and creases of pain from his leg, " seeing as your in there up to your knees. Your _girlfriend_ she's still you know your _girlfriend_?"

"Oh my god," Shikamaru said, shaking his head in stunned disbelief, his thin mouth in his angular face pulling a line of complete exasperation, "could you **_be_** anymore obvious if you tried? Why don't you get a banner and a sign saying 'Reveal all personal secrets, and Naruto have you popped the question yet?' You said you'd be subtle about it!"

"Well next time you ask, mister, and I'll stand there making sarcastic comments, okay? Besides, I know you, you'd make it too subtle and then he'd never pick it up."

Naruto watched them bicker, or at least Kiba 'try' to, but it was as about as productive as trying to establish an interesting conversation with a brick wall, Shikamaru wasn't giving an inch and was ignoring all of his attempts, rolling his eyes and looking straight up at the forest canopy.

Maybe they'd forget the question if they continued like this.

_// Good idea to perhaps get away//_

He began to slowly edge away, this was really one subject he absolutely didn't want to engage on.

He made it to the line of trees before Kiba jumped him from behind in a suffocating headlock and dragged him backwards by his ears.

"Don't think we forgot about you, not for an instant buddy, besides you can't leave me with him for the rest of the way back, I'd kill myself for something better to do."

Shikamaru had obviously decided the remark was below his dignity to answer because he only looked expectantly at Naruto, as did Kiba, looking somewhat like a puppy, ears pricked and excited.

_//Go on then! Tell me, tell me, tell me! Oh go on please!!//_

_//Why not?//_

"Did I ask her?" Naruto repeated, slowly, he stuck his hands behind his head, and turned forwards, and looked down at the forest trail they where following, pine needles that lay scattered like green fingernails. He examined the patterns they made in the dirt with his eyes.

His mind travels back seconds, minutes, hours, to a few days ago, a night when warm drizzle had been spattering on the white windowsill of Sakura's apartment. It had been an oddly peaceful evening, no long drawn out conversation which picked at one of Naruto's faults, which had been assured that had many. Instead it had been a scene lulled with wine and a moonlit dinner. Oddly romantic for Naruto, oddly thoughtful, but she hadn't thought about it for long enough. Not nearly long enough.

"You didn't ask her did you." Shikamaru says as perceptive as ever, suddenly breaking the silence that had drifted in between them. It's an uneasy hollow sound that emanates after that, and it spirals horribly until Naruto turns about again, that same easy characteristic expression he always wears when he doesn't want to face up to something.

"Nope." No preamble straight in.

He'd expected them to both shrug their shoulders, or at least stand more awkwardly for another thirty or twenty seconds but instead they both look at him with unguarded disappointment and even a little frustration.

"What do you mean 'nope'?" Kiba asks before Shikamaru can elbow him in the ribs again, "You wouldn't stop talking about it last week, we thought-" he looked pointedly at Shikamaru here who raises both his eyebrows as if to say 'whose we?', and then continued, "hell everyone thought that you would have popped it to her. Hell especially with that mission she's gone on, she's gonna be away for..what…four months?"

"Six actually." Naruto told them flatly, he didn't know why the words echoed in his head so loudly, or didn't stir up as much pain as he had thought they would. In fact the horrifying truth of the matter was that they didn't stir up any pain. Spirals of nothing rose and fell through him as he thought about six months without Sakura.

Six whole months, that was twenty four weeks, one hundred and sixty eight days, four thousand and thirty two hours and two million forty one thousand nine hundred and twenty minutes. Why wasn't the prospect of that chilling him right down to the bone and leaving him in a place where the sky was grey and the sun no longer knew how to rise.

The idea of waking up, day after day alone in his bed should be echoing in coils that clung mistily, like a dark fog about his soul. He'd be alone again, as alone as he hadn't been in years, before he had met the others. He hated it, more then anything else in the world…if you had to be alone, surely wasn't death better?

He should be chilled, desperate for her to come back. But it wasn't, it just wasn't. The more he tried to reason the more his mind told him that he'd been alone for a long long time. His soul had felt empty, he'd been incomplete like this for such a long time he didn't know what right felt like anymore.

Besides Sakura never slept over at his apartment anyway that was normal right?

She said it gave her a headache, that it looked as though a small band of monkeys had crept down the chimney and played 'toss the banana' in every single room.

Naruto thought she'd used the monkey analogy because he had bought a monkey head night cap the previous week and worn it to bed despite her protestations (his head got cold easily), although he'd certainly never played 'toss the banana'.

But he did love her, he had loved her ever since he had first met her, when he was twelve he'd been absolutely crazy about her. But she hadn't been crazy over him, quite the opposite in fact, she had thought him a nuisance, something obstructing her path to Sas-…

Well, let's just say he had been in the way.

It wasn't for lack of trying that he hadn't asked her, he'd gone to all the trouble of cooking that three course meal, learning how to cook something other then ramen was a huge achievement in itself. It had been a simple gesture of what he'd be willing to do, what he was willing to do for her. She was his Sakura, his partner, his…his companion. He'd gladly turn himself inside out for her if he had to without a second thought, because he loved her.

Because he loved her so much.

Didn't he?

He'd even brought a ring, from the money he'd gained working all those double shifts, extra odd jobs that brought him back at two o'clock in the morning, utterly spent with only enough energy to drag himself into bed without so much as a smile or recognition to the angry growling in his stomach as it begged for food.

And the ring wasn't even the one he had wanted, the one with the pink crystal in the shape of a cherry blossom had been sold by the time he had finally got to the jewellers on a rainy Saturday afternoon, drenched through to the skin and sneezing.

He'd had to make do with the strangely shaped red stone that shone bloody whenever it caught the light, set in plain gold. It had been the closest colour to pink that he had been able to find. On second glance when he had looked at it, he had thought the stone had been the exact same colour as…well as somebody's eyes had been once upon a time, before he had gone as if he had never existed. It had been like the ring was laughing at him, mocking him, all that deep crimson had made his fingers go slightly numb as he had traced the gold over and over again sitting on the end of his bed in the dark.

His mouth contacting in the words "Will you marry me? **Will** you marry me? Will **you** marry me? Will you **marry me**?" Until the image had blurred and he was not, as intended proposing to Sakura at all, but there where strong white limbs curled over his own, and the smell of burning flesh scarring straight into his nostrils and a cold hand dragging back through his hair and down his spine so he gasped. Breaking into a light film of sweat, avoiding to look at face, the face he knew it would be…and it wasn't Sakura's.

It had ruined it in the end, given him sleepless nights, in which he felt he had been unfaithful when he hadn't. They where just dreams after all, the subconscious playing tricks. But to have the same sexual fantasy over and over…and with him of all people…with him! The inner crevasses of his mind, the ones he kept shaded from reality and truth knew the whole secret, of how he begged and how he pleaded and how he groaned for more. As of late it had become more frequent…more…certainly more explicate.

Despite his own efforts to push it to the side, to concentrate on something that didn't threaten to destroy him, to put his own best wishes first it had destroyed those dreams

he had been building on.

As he had faced Sakura over a bottle of champagne with little bubbles of nervousness creeping up from his gut and throughout his body he had lost his nerve. She had looked so pretty, her silky hair tucked absently behind her ears as she hummed some tuneless song to herself, wearing that little dress that he liked so much.

_// And I suddenly realised I wasn't even seeing her at all. //_

He had lost his nerve, right then and there, opening his expressive mouth to say- anything, but his throat had swallowed up the words before they could breach. Instead, blushing slightly, he had made an excuse to get up from the table, walked (clumsily as he had tripped over a chair in his haste to get out) into the kitchen opened up the window out onto the warm rain and stuck the ring in it's little box outside in the wet soil of the plant pots outside.

Naruto had stood there for a moment before he slammed it shut again.

Maybe he was depressed? It's odd, when you're depressed; you usually get sad don't you? Not that he could have burst into song at any given second, but he didn't feel different either. The same old Naruto Uzumaki, the same prankster, the same guy, a little easier on the eyes then he had been when he was younger maybe, but some things change with age don't they?

_// Drift back into the present…//_

"So you are…or you aren't going out?" Kiba asks tentatively, and he looks like he's chewing the inside of his cheek as he waits for the answer.

It's quite a bizarre sensation when you simultaneously want to thank somebody and knock their lights out at the same time.

Naruto tries hard to swallow down the latter half.

"She's still my girlfriend."

_//Just.//_

"Ah."

_//That's not even a word Kiba.//_

Naruto falls into single step beside Shikamaru, nobody says anything for a while, the light stipples and fades in different sections, ebbing as the flow of canopy thickens and dilates.

Kiba clears his throat, apparently signalling Shikamaru to say something here (something sensitive quick!), Shikamaru however doesn't respond to this, much to Naruto's relief, but he does give him a long look out of the corner of his angular eyes as if summing up Naruto in the way he walks.

Finally, he said, "I doubt she'd say no, she could do a lot worse."

And Naruto grins, and then laughs the frostiness in gut melting away like ice on a sun kissed window pane as Kiba says in undertones "Like bushy brows…I mean semi-bushy brows."

The wind sighs contentedly through the leaves, rustling dryly against each other as they whisper together unmentionable secrets.

They walk together comfortably after that, every now and again Naruto finds himself smiling for no reason at all, it's as if a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders, and he scuffs his shoes against the ground sending pebbles skittering across the path.

Kiba feels it first.

He halts suddenly; sticking out an arm to stop the advance, the glinting tips of canines raking over his bottom lip, dark brows framing his amber eyes, like two glowing coals.

"Blood." He say's hoarsely, turning his head slightly from left to right and then back again, "On the wind." He points one long fingered hand, slightly hooked like a claw, in an easterly direction that doesn't lie on the path ahead, leather jacket scuffing gently against his wrist as he circles his finger in a round about sort of way.

"Can you tell if it's just one person?" Shikamaru asks quickly, pulling something out of his back pocket, what looks like a small compass with a needle point, "Still alive or dead? And if so for how long?"

He makes a motion with his head for them to move back into the shade of the trees and off the path, Naruto is bouncing on the balls of his feet, his spine pressing against the knobbly skin of an old oak, fingers clenched, hot adrenaline zipping up and down his spine.

"One person," Kiba says, slowly, and his face contorts into a frown, and he shoots Shikamaru a dangerous look, "still alive I think but just."

"We're not really equipped to be dealing with casualties." Head tilted slightly as he tries to read Kiba's wide eyed alarmed expression, "Besides, there's always the likely chance of whatever got them could get us, and taking an invalid would seriously slow our progress down."

"But," Naruto interjected, looking with curiosity Kiba who seems to be trying to form some silent word on the tip of his tongue, "you just said we were a day earlier then expected. Besides where we are now, there aren't any nearby villages, not within walking distance anyway. They'll die if we just leave them here….Kiba, what on earth is wrong with your face?"

To Naruto it seemed that the appropriate line of bees in your bonnet was suddenly applicable to friend, or perhaps the more accurate description of a person looking like they had just swallowed a beehive.

"Erh?" Shikamaru said expansively, whilst the golden tousled haired youth peered over his shoulder.

"Do we go, or do we leave it?" Naruto pestered, looking with a sort of amused interest as Kiba seemed to be trying to swallow his tongue.

"He's going a funny shade of purple isn't he?"

Kiba choked at this, glared furiously at Naruto before turning to the only one in his opinion with any sense and said forcefully, "It's just got one of those bad feelings about it, you know?"

"Meaning your too chicken to go and check it out I suppose?" Naruto responded grinning, dodging as Kiba sent a fist towards his head, "Come on, not so tough are you? Ohhh careful Kiba-chan Lee might be out to get you!"

Shikamaru felt he really could have done without this, his two team mates dancing around him in a wild dance of tag, Kiba snarling something along the lines of "Say that to again you dumb fox!" and Naruto, blue eyes sparkling and laughing like they hadn't heard him do in weeks as he stuck out his tongue.

"Don't do that," Shikamaru told him sternly, sticking his hands behind both of their heads and bringing their foreheads together in a bone crunching smash ('Ouch! Maru, that frikkin' hurt!'), "what if you got stuck like that forever? Then we'd all have to look at it.

"So here's the plan okay, Naruto you want to go look? Alright then, well move towards it, but you can go on ahead approximately two hundred meters and scope it out. And I mean scope, when I say scope Naruto…not ice cream scoop moron so get that glazed look off your face…look at me when I tell you this. Concentrating? Okay, what did I ask you to do?"

Naruto blinked, focusing on the two dusky brown eyes before him, "Scope head, no dairy products included, don't do anything interesting and then come back."

"And if you see anyone else?"

"I should…"

"Not engage, and slip back as quickly as possible without being seen, got it?"

"Got it! Run like a dog with my tail between my legs, no offence Kiba."

And with that dry wind rustling through his hair and dancing across his skin as he jumped into the dry boughs of a leaning tree, melting into the shadows like a ghost.

* * *

Naruto moved through the clot of trees ahead, counting mentally how many meters he was moving and just how far he ought to go. Here and there he looked down to see the forest floor flowing beneath him like a thick green river. No sign of anything, no blood, no corpses, no signs of a battle. Nothing of interest at all….

Except Kiba's never been wrong about this sort of thing, so he ploughs on, due east.

After a while his skin starts to tingle and he slows down, blinking his cornflower blue eyes, he shakes his head as if to dislodge a fly from between his ears, he comes to a complete stop. Some cold trail of ice trickles down the extent of his spine, moving over the knobbles right down into his gut and pelvis, his muscles contract and suddenly he's on edge. Suddenly he knows someone….or something is here.

Silently he slips from the tree, hands touching the ground first, fingers splayed taught, inherently his body knows the sounds of the forest. It's innate knowledge, one that's not part of his memory but the Kyubbi's as strong and ancient as the mountains. A little to his left he realises how the ground has been slightly disturbed as if someone earlier dragged a foot through there, disrupting blades of grass as the went. Look how some of them are bent…and there…against the tree, see how the moss is flattened? Some one placed a hand there, a left one, look at the indent made by the thumb.

And there, to the right, the rocks have been disturbed, someone fell maybe? He edges closer, noticing how on the shiny cuticles of the leaves a dark cracked substance lingers, and he rubs it off with his finger and tastes it.

Blood.

Some one was here within the last twenty four hours.

He follows the trail further, all the time aware of how silent the forest is, and how pressing the gloom is against his eyes.

And yet in the dim light he sees a pale figure, lying spread eagle beneath a huge old tree, massive curling roots sending up tendrils hither and thither. Even he can smell the blood stink now, it's so strong, and he wrinkles his nose and hides it behind his left wrist. Edging slowly, inch by inch towards it. Curiosity hungry and adamant inside him.

Then he stops, his arm falls away from his face, and he feels vaguely stiff, breathless and then dizzy, very dizzy, and then sick.

He knows that person…oh god he knows that person.

Slim figure, pale ivory skin, long legs, slender arms and long elegant hands, like a fallen swan, neck bent at an odd angle and eyes closed.

It's then when the world swims that Naruto wonders vaguely in the last resort of coherent thought, if Sasuke Uchiha is breathing.

* * *

Kiba gave Shikamaru a small side look and shuffled his feet, the other ignored him, until Kiba unable to keep his silence any longer said:

"You know what this is going to be right?"

"Troublesome? Of course it is, I got signed up with you two didn't I?"

Kiba looked thoroughly disappointed at the fact that Shikamaru had just denied him the pleasure of later pronouncing "I told you so."

* * *

A/N Some of the dialogue above was inspired by a very funny msn conversation I had whilst touching this up, and thank you to my beta/editor-sama for agreeing to edit this!

First time at writing a Naruto actual fiction (be gentle with me okay?), face palms I went all incoherent after seeing about 60 episodes on the same day and I nearly keeled over from all the Sasuke smut and angst…and oh…oh … oh!!!

Now if you have complaints about why I put the NaruxSaku relationship in here, let me assure you, I don't like that pairing either, in fact that's why I wrote it in. You'll just have to wait and see…also I'm sorry Lee fans, I do love Lee I really do, but…it's just so easy to take the piss out of him!

Reviews are food

I would love to get feed back on this, and general recommendations, bits you liked, bits you didn't etc…erh, and if you flame me, please _be _at least constructive about it!

Thank you for reading!


	2. The Skeleton Bridge

**Fish Bird**

By The Eternity Dragon

Chapter Two

Disclaimer : If Naruto was mine, I'd kick Sasuke's from here to high heaven, so he could JUST STOP being so EMO!

* * *

Chapter two: 

_//Okay Naruto breathe, breathe- it's just…it's just a bad dream. That's all, it isn't happening, this can't be real. Quick close your eyes and pinch yourself//_

Amongst the bubbles of incoherency this foremost thought thrusts itself to the surface, as he stands there shivering from shock, cornflower blue eyes squeezed closed as he falls forwards onto his knees, all the blood seemingly gushing from his ears. As his hands grit the earth beneath his finger tips and he inhales the damp smell of crushed grass and soil up into his brain.

Naruto gently lets his forehead rest on the hard indents of his knee caps and pulls numb fingers towards his lower wrist, forefinger and thumb closing together like a vice.

**_"Ouch!"_**

_//That really hurt//_

So he's not dreaming. He keeps his eyes closed for a moment: the key to it is not to panic- maybe when he looks up again it's going to be someone else, maybe there wasn't anything there at all… it might have just been that food he stole out of Kiba's pack when he wasn't looking. The liver and kidney biscuits or whatever the hell it was… it might be having repercussions now and just playing with his senses.

It really can't be Sasuke… not now, not ever, it's not allowed to be.

Naruto Uzumaki stands up, a little too fast because everything swims blotchily, there's an awful bitter taste of acid gargling up the back of his throat as though he's going to be sick. He bites down hard on his tongue, and ignoring the fact that his knees are shaking, he takes small tentative steps forwards, without really looking anywhere.

Then he looks back again, at the figure lying on the ground, hoping against all hope that it's not what it first seemed to be. But life, cruel and cynical as always, laughs at him. Breaking glass seems to flash and splinter and hope shatters, the jagged pieces lying across something he's struggled to mould and maintain, some cracked thing that's holding itself together with duck tape and paper clips, but it _is_ still holding… barely.

He'd never forget that face, even smothered in dirt and clots of blood; burned into his brain, he sees it in his dreams, like the imprint of a ghost haunting him.

"Sasuke Uchiha…" he breathes slowly on the out breath. His hands are so numb as he pressed them against his eyes, he's hardly aware of the sensation in his finger tips.

_// What do I do? What the hell do I do//_

He can't hold down the bile this time, he turns, half coughing, stomach wrenching right from the bottom of his gut. It's the smell, it's that goddamned awful smell! It's clinging to his nostrils and carpeting the inside of his lungs and throat with blood; and that higher, metallic smell that's burning his eyes slightly and making him wince.

_// I need to get a grip. Come on Naruto, get a grip. Deal with this. //_

Naruto spits out the last glob of acid lying behind his molars; he places his shaking palms together and grits his teeth. He's on a mission, treat it like mission, like something on a piece of paper, totally meaningless, a set of rules and obligations to be followed.

Had Kakashi-sensei been here, he probably would have taken over by now, but he's not here, he's not twelve anymore, he can look after himself, of course he can do this, he's more then capable of it.

Naruto squares his shoulders and moves forwards, the stippled light glances across his skin casting deep dark shadows around his eyes, as tentatively he walks the earth. This after all could be some sort of an illusion, some sort of trick, someone pretending to be Sasuke after all. If he's going to walk into a trap headfirst, he might as well do it with his head held high and go down fighting right?

The ground seems to creak slightly beneath his foot, rocks rubbing against the rough skin of tree roots that penetrate this place like huge dark creepers. It's when he gets closer that he realises the grass is all withered and burnt in a rough circle around the body, little blackened stumps peeping out of the scarred soil here and there. Frowning, and hairs prickling at the back of his neck, Naruto presses forwards, licking his lips, feeling so apprehensive as he slowly kneels down; for the first time in years face to face with Uchiha.

Hesitantly, hands fumbling like a child, he remembers what to do, standard procedure. Sasuke's head is lying at an odd angle, eyes closed, skin terrifyingly pale. Too pale: almost bloodless underneath all that muck and grime. Maybe he's dead- God is he dead? Is he? He's clumsy as he tries to move the head so it's at a less jarring angle from the rest of his body, fingers skimming the jaw line. His flesh is cold and Naruto begins to feel sick again, breaking out in a cold sweat as he fumbles for a pulse.

_// Oh God, damn, help// _

There's the powerful urge to vomit up those biscuits again, seconds tick away like hours as he waits for it… for a long time there's absolutely nothing… and then… something, very faint, almost nonexistent. Like movement in a spider's web: a slight twitch and then a release and Naruto breathes out, air rushing out cold and fast in sudden glorious relief.

It's there at least.

He can't help grinning, something that travels all the way up to his eyes. A light seems to sparkle behind the cornflower irises, while subconsciously his hand travels up to span the rest of Sasuke's face, taking in the changes. His hair is still raven black, so dark that any falling light it catches turns indigo blue; the face has changed slightly. Older, longer perhaps, more angular: still beautifully formed. The mouth is the same as it ever was, slightly parted as it is now flushed and full and slightly pouting as the body draws in air. Naruto feels a fleeting stab of something in his chest thinking the face inhabits a space of melancholy beauty.

Absently he moves his fingers to brush the dark strands of hair away from Sasuke's face, his digits rubbing against cuts and bruises that curdle against the milky flow of his skin. He leans down a little, his middle finger tapping gently against Sasuke's cheek almost wonderingly. He wants him to open his eyes, to look at him, to say something.

Naruto opens his mouth, words forming and falling on his tongue; but he shakes his head feeling foolish. If Sasuke really did wake up, what would he have to say to him? What would Sasuke care? He'd already walked off once. What would stop him from walking off again? What if this was some sort of very ill spirited practical joke?

He… Naruto could walk away now, leave him here, go back to Shikamaru and Kiba and pretend that nothing had happened. That the person was lying in so many pieces there wasn't even any point in them going to check. Case closed, moving on please.

He'd probably die if he did that….

Probably… most likely….

Definitely.

When did life become so complicated?

All he wants to do is go home, curl up in bed, and pretend this is a really, **really** crap dream. The sort he'll wake up from shivering, and lie there for a moment thinking "shit." Before getting up to devour yesterday's cold ramen for breakfast.

Reality, he realises as he opens his mouth to say something, anything: Reality _really_ sucks. It really, really… does.

It turns around at the oddest of times and just punches you, right there, right in the gut, fist clenched tight; and then strolls away with a sexy sort of smile on its face, as if to say: "Got ya darlin'!"

He thinks maybe he's a little afraid, a little unsure of what to do, because he's standing, obstinately not saying or doing anything but licking his cracked lips and tasting the sordid salt of his skin rough and bitter against his tongue.

There isn't really very much he can say. Not enough to be put into words. It's been closed off for such a long time he's not quite sure of where to start. The funny thing is that a long time ago he used to dream of this. He had in his head rehearsed so many lines, so many actions. Practised entire speeches in those timeless hours of the night, when only the walls and moon could hear him. He had planned it all, actions and words. How it would end happily-ever-after, and everything, finally… everything would be back to normal.

A child's ideal, a child's game that he'd given up a long, long time ago. No one lives 'happily-ever-after.' Not a soul.

Naruto wonders briefly at the chasm that seems to be laid out between them, Sasuke and he: deep, dark and bottomless. He couldn't possibly breach that could he? Even back in the days when he was willing, now it's a concept beyond the impossible, living in the absurd.

He smiles a little for no reason at all, head tilted slightly to the left, so that dusty blonde trails of hair fall across his forehead.

It would be the understatement of _the world_ to say that this situation was just uncomfortable.

He blinks long thick lashes, as he always does when he's nervous, and it makes him look like a child. In a curiously stubborn and oddly attractive motion that completely disarms him, Naruto takes a deep breath in, clenches his jaw and looks straight upwards.

"So Sasuke, long time no see, huh?"

It's not as if Sasuke can hear the words and it's not as if there was any point in speaking at all; yet the statement is simply a genuine reflection of the different paths they've followed and the time that's travelled like grains of sand between them.

To Naruto the words are so blunt they hurt.

* * *

Kiba and Shikamaru have been standing in the same position for what seems to be hours. In reality it's only been ten minutes and thirty seconds. The reason why it feels like an eternity is the fact that Kiba has been trying to remember something for these past ten minutes, and this is slowly driving Shikamaru crazy. 

"Will you just spit it out?" he mutters between clenched teeth, eyes alert, as his mind he adds the words, "Before I throttle you!"

Kiba ignores him, face pensive. There's definitely something familiar about this, something ominous. And it's not just the smell of blood, it's the type…. He's smelt it before, and there's something nagging at the back of his mind. Something assuring him that this just isn't natural, that it isn't right. There's a bitter taste of acid on the air, a little ammonia maybe? It's making his nostrils sting and his eyes water.

Kiba's been taught from birth to always trust the gut feeling: "It's a sign," he's been warned, "You'd be a fool to ignore it."

Only he can't work out what the sign is….

"He's been gone too long," Shikamaru continues to himself seeing as Kiba isn't listening. In fact he's had both his eyes closed, face screwed up and his fingers stuck in his ears, trying desperately to remember whatever-it-is for, oh yes, _the last ten minutes._

_// How did I end up with these idiots again// _

He was really going to have to talk to Tsunade after this was all over.

"I think we should move closer in. I don't like the fact he hasn't reported back yet, it's not that far ahead—"

Shikamaru never had the opportunity to finish this sentence however, as a proverbial lightening bolt fell from the sky, lifted levers of realisation and swung open a door in Kiba's mind. In truth this realisation is not quite so holy; it's more the sort that rams its foot right up your backside and then cackles callously.

"Crap, crappity, crappity crappity **_CRAP_**!" Kiba yells suddenly, and Shikamaru nearly falls out the tree in surprise as Kiba jumps on him, shakes him by the collar and ignores all protests of "What the hell? Stop it now!"

"Fuck-a-_duck_ Maru! I know that, I **_know_** that!" and without illustrating his point further, he tears off in the direction Naruto had formerly galloped.

Shikamaru allows himself to think a rational "They're all lunatics," and a "We Are All Going to Die," before jumping to his feet and rushing after Kiba, cursing creatively under his breath as he goes.

He only has a few seconds to wait anyway: they move fast, terrifyingly so in fact, and as they stumble on the clearing, tripping around the vast wedges of tree roots that snake out of the ground like insanely huge earthworms, Shikamaru suddenly realises what is wrong.

That person, the man that their Naruto is leaning over, shaking slightly, is supposed to be dead.

Sasuke?

He doesn't even bother to yell at Kiba as he rushes blindly to Naruto: there could be traps, there could be landmines underneath them, there could be anything. The whole situation reeks of something absolutely abhorrent and intangible. It's like walking straight through death and staggering right out the other side. This just isn't supposed to happen, not now, not ever.

Kiba's already there, shaking Naruto gently by the shoulders, trying to snap him out of his reverie. There's a bloody hand print on his face and dried clots of blood in his hair, as if he's run his fingers multiple times across his scalp. His skin is oddly pale and his lips cracked and bleeding as if he's been biting them.

The relief is, the blood on his face and clothes isn't his, it belongs to the person lying next to him. The person with their eyes firmly closed and mouth slightly parted, the way that you do only if you're…

"He's not dead." Naruto says suddenly, his voice is hoarse against the soft flesh of his mouth. "I don't understand why he's bleeding, there's blood everywhere…" he rubs his nose against his wrist, without looking up at either of them.

Kiba is sending Shikamaru one of those looks that communicates that he understands nothing of what is going on and that Maru should do something… **_now_**.

Naruto is talking to Kiba saying something which Shikamaru presumes to be mildly frenzied because Kiba has that snarling confused look plastered to his face, as if to say, _"What the hell?"_

The world could have turned itself upside down and things might have made more sense.

The primary source of thought that Shikamaru allows himself to flow from, ignoring Kiba's startled gasps of "Why isn't he dead?" and "What the hell is he doing here?" is that he doesn't like it, not one bit, and it seems to stink of a set up. He won't forget what happened last time he partook in anything involving the Uchiha prodigy. People had ended up hurt… and hurt badly.

"We have to get him back, now." Naruto is saying, standing up and turning to Shikamaru, "Fast Maru, I can't seem to get him warm again, and I'm afraid if he stays that cold for much longer… he's going to die, so you're gonna have to help me carry him back."

"No." Shikamaru starts unthinkingly, staring at Sasuke as he says it, unaware of the frantic hand gestures Kiba is making behind Naruto's back. Naruto, who is now facing him, broad shoulders, arms crossed with a slightly disbelieving look on his face, as he looks from Kiba to Shikamaru, and back to Kiba.

_// Well, I just stuck two feet in my mouth there didn't I//_

Naruto tilts his head mimicking a politely enquiring position, his eyes softly dangerous; Shikamaru locks his jaw, whilst Kiba shuffles nervously from one foot to the other looking uncomfortable.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me Uzumaki, I said no."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"Well, which bit don't you understand: the middle or the end?"

Naruto's face contorts in anger; he can never stand being mocked, not when he's trying to protect something important to him.

"Don't play games!" he snarls, "What does that mean? 'No' you're not going to help me? Or 'no', you're not allowing me to take him back with us? 'Cause you better think again before you say that Shikamaru, because hell will freeze over before I just let you leave him here to die."

Shikamaru looked absolutely undaunted by the sudden fizzling anger radiating from his friend, while Kiba glanced back and forth, kneeling by the unconscious Sasuke, until his attention slips, eyes moving and frowning at Sasuke's wrist.

"Is your headband on too tight something? So you forget what happened last time?" Shikamaru bites back, hands in pockets, jaw muscles flexing as he keeps his face completely impassive. "People _died_. You nearly died, I nearly died, Kiba nearly died, we all nearly died, and some weren't that _lucky_. Because of him, Uzumaki! I'm not willing to risk my life for someone who betrayed us for their own personal gain; or yours for that matter. It's not worth it, he's not worth it."

"I'm not leaving him here!" Naruto snarled back. He was smaller then Shikamaru by about three inches, but it was amazing how anger seemed to give him an extra foot in height. "He'll die."

"Do you listen to anything I say?" Shikamaru asked incredulously, "How do we even know it's him anyway? It could be an impostor for all we know-"

"It's him alright," Kiba interjected quietly not looking at either one, rubbing a red sticky globule of blood between his fingers. "You can't fake the smell of a person's blood. Not when there's this much of it."

"He's going to bleed to death isn't he?" Naruto asked, turning his attention away from Shikamaru, body language immediately shifting into the less defensive, seeming smaller, loosing the fox's ferocity. The look that ghosted across his face was the sort that arose when he and Sakura where arguing: lonely, lost and slightly bewildered.

"Kiba, you agree with me don't you?"

"Naruto…there might not be enough time to-"

"But you agree with me," Naruto cut in hotly, ignoring Shikamaru's derisive snort of disgust, "don't you Kiba?"

Kiba looked like someone had turned a spotlight on him on a darkened stage in front a multitude of people he didn't know, and had somehow mistakenly misplaced all of his clothes.

"I..ugh…well."

**_"Don't you Kiba?"_**

This last part was expelled so forcefully that as it was yelled the sound reverberated from curling tree root to tree root. Kiba licked his lips and looked at his feet with fascination before opening his mouth to say:

"You know sometimes when things are a Bad Idea? Well this isn't on that level… no, no, this is on the level of Naruto if you do this you'll get such bad karma you'll die, like, you'll get squashed to death underneath a mountain of punishment paper work."

Naruto glowered at him, "So that's it then? You won't help me?"

"Of course I'll help you you moron!" Kiba responded so fast he seemed to do it without drawing breath, "We'll both help you, don't think we're going to do anything else!"

"Excuse me?" Shikamaru interjected, raising both his eyebrows so high they where in danger of flying straight off his face, "No we aren't, I'm certainly not helping him to hurt himself again."

Naruto rounded on Shikamaru and Kiba, reading warning sparks, darted up, ready, just in case things got ugly to (…to run the hell away…? Of course not!) to help.

"What the hell gives you the authority to just presume that's going to happen again?" Naruto's tone, low and angry: "How can you just treat it as decided that that's what will happen?"

"Oh, let's not pretend for a moment that you don't believe it too Uzumaki," Shikamaru snarled back,

_//Damnit he was angry now//_

"but you just can't leave things alone, can you? You never listen! You know, I bet if I looked hard enough I could see my words actually drifting into one ear and straight out the other again…." He made hand movements and stifled Naruto's beginning words as he opened his mouth to argue back, continuing "Look, there they go! Shush now: maybe we can hear the faint whooshing sound they make as they drift on by."

Naruto swore at him, "You know I'll do it anyway, don't you? Why are you even bothering to argue with me about it?"

"No, you won't." Shikamaru told him softly, his eyes narrowed dangerously. A worried Kiba began nibbling his thumb in a rather over enthusiastic manner.

"What do you… shit, Shikamaru! Stop that!" Realisation began to dawn in Naruto's eyes.

"We're walking all the way back alright, and when we get back then we can tell Tsunade about this and she can send a group of ANBU here and they can take care of it." Shikamaru took a step forwards, and shaking with rage, gritting his teeth, so did Naruto,

"Stop it Shikamaru, I swear- I told you, I'm not… **_stop it_**! I'm not leaving!"

Shikamaru took another five steps forwards, and Naruto, cursing and yelling, followed.

Kiba, with the cold trickling feeling that his team-mates had gone insane, aimed a coherent "Huh?" at his golden haired friend who seemed to be fighting some heated internal battle with his feet.

"Shadow bind technique," he was told somewhat curtly, "we are going. Come on."

"Maru," Kiba said softly, coming forwards with his back to Naruto. "If you do this, he'll never forgive you. Even if he's still alive when they find him again," Kiba nodded towards Sasuke's still form, "he'll never forgive you for it."

"At least he'll be alive to hold a stupid grudge. It's a bit difficult to hold any when you're dead, isn't it, which he'll end up being at some point if we let him do this!"

Kiba seemed to be chewing the inside of his cheek again as he looked from Shikamaru's stubborn face, to Naruto who was glowering heatedly at both of them, beads of frustration working down his forehead as he fought to break the full body bind.

Placidly he put forwards, "Hey, a lot's happened between then and now. He's got older and matured a bit you know? I mean that's what happens when people grow up right?"

"Kiba," Shikamaru bit out between clenched teeth, "let me firmly and once and for all shake this deluded idea from your head. All people do when they get older- and this is a universally accepted fact- they just go crazier; in fact they jump the train and go absolutely insane. The only difference is they just get really good at hiding it."

Slightly side tracked by this piece of information Kiba faltered, allowing Shikamaru to plunge on, "If he got hurt, because I allowed him to do this, I'd never forgive myself. I _swore_ I wouldn't let this happen again… I swore it. Not after last time, I don't want to make the decision that will lead to the biggest mistake he ever made."

"Listen, I find it best to envisage Naruto as a type of cockroach-"

"I can hear you, you idiot! And it's **_not_** up to you to decide my so-called 'mistakes' for me!" Naruto spat at both he and Shikamaru, his eyes dancing a furious dazzling blue.

"Ugh… See, when I said that in my head… it sounded a whole lot better. Anyway, come on Maru, it's your call, I'm thinking it would be pretty bad karma if you just left a fellow ninja from the leaf village to just die out here."

"An **_ex_**-leaf village ninja, let's not forget that."

"But a leaf village ninja, none the less. You can't protect people, from themselves, no matter how hard you try, you know that."

Shikamaru releases his grip somewhat, the words knocking to some effect on the inside of his skull. He runs his tongue over his teeth inside his mouth, and meets Naruto's gaze head on for the first time throughout the entire argument.

"You have to promise me… if I let you do this Naruto, you have to do everything I tell you to? I want you to swear to me, that you will."

For a moment Naruto doesn't say anything, ragged snippets of hair trailing messily across his eyes in a ringing silence… and then,

"I swear."

Nothing happens.

"Maru," Kiba says in a hoarsely audible whisper, "you're supposed to let him go now."

Shikamaru glowers and ends up staring into the canopy above as he thinks about the troubles that have been forced into his head because of these two twits; and gently, inch by inch, lets the jitsu slide.

Naruto falls to the ground, massaging his neck, trying to work out the kinks that seemed to have formed in his spine. He's still furious, anger bubbling throughout his nerves and popping in hot little bursts. Why does everybody feel they have to protect him in some way, manner or form? Hasn't he proven himself enough times now? He's so sick of people looking down at him.

"You never know," Kiba is saying helpfully to both of them, grabbing Naruto by his shoulders and yanking him up, "it might all work out happily ever after." Shikamaru's voice is laced with icy sarcasm and he has a tick pulsing under one eye when he responds to this zealous statement, "Of course it is, you know just after hell freezes over."

It's beneath anybodies dignity to respond to this.

"Help me get him up," Naruto says hoarsely his voice catching painfully in the back of his throat, "I'll carry him over my shoulder; I don't care about the weight-" But Shikamaru cuts across him with a brusque "Don't be ridiculous." Inclining his head for Naruto to come and help him, he murmurs: "We'll both carry him; I'll show you how we can make a stretcher."

* * *

It's cold. The thrumming sounds of machines, whirring against white-washed walls seems to dig right into the back of Naruto's teeth, as he stands against the panel of glass looking down into the room below. He's on his fourth cup of coffee this hour; the Coffee beans are mixed with the aroma of his own sweat, curling nauseatingly up his nostrils as he grimaces at the taste that's washing down his tongue. 

"N…Naruto?" the words are spoken softly, but no ones been in here apart from him for the last few hours.

He jumps, spilling most of the coffee onto the floor, narrowly missing his shirt.

"Naruto, I-I'm sorry!"

He laughs, that easy smile sliding easily across his face as he steps away from the dark brown puddle he's just created on the floor.

"No, I'm sorry Hinata, that's completely my fault."

He turns and grins at her, watching as she flushes, long dark hair being drawn like a curtain across her face as she looks down, bashful and anxious as she always is around him.

"Hmm, Naruto, don't you think you ought to get some sleep? You haven't slept in... sometime. Well not since you brought Sasuke-kun back."

"Three days yeah," he stifles a yawn, still smiling. "Did Kiba tell you to come and gently chastise me because he knew I wouldn't get mad at you?"

"Chastise you?" she looked somewhat puzzled, blinking her large eyes and biting her lower lip, "I wouldn't ever dream of… I didn't mean that…"

Naruto just continues to smile at her, elbows propped up on the metal bar that ran before the glass panel. He steals a glance down before winking at Hinata:

"Excuse me," he murmurs -she flushes this time down to the roots of her hair- and strolling across to the other side of the room, he pauses before yanking the door wide open in one deftly aggressive movement.

Kiba fell forwards, glass held to ear; Shikamaru standing behind him looking somewhat guilty as Naruto glared at both of them hands on hips-

"You could at least have the guts to come do it yourselves!" he snapped irately at Kiba who was fumbling to hide the glass behind his back. He nodded his head in the direction of Hinata, "that's not fair."

"Look," Kiba began, shoving the glass at Shikamaru, "we've tried asking you nicely, we've tried not asking you nicely, we've tried forcibly removing you, thanks to which I now have an extremely painful bruise on my ass. You need to sleep."

"I'm fine."

"No, no you're not, you're insane, you can't keep going like this, eventually you'll snap, think your middle finger is talking to you, and start referring to yourself in the third person as _Johnny_."

_//Right…//_

"Hinata," Shikamaru interrupted before Kiba could get any further with embarrassing himself, "could you get us all another cup of coffee please? I think this might just be another long night."

* * *

"Shouldn't… shouldn't he have woken up by now?" Naruto asks, more to himself than the others. Kiba is snoring loudly in his sleep, sprawled across three collapsible chairs; Shikamaru is glaring with intent hostility at him as if seriously considering ripping off one of his socks and stuffing it down his throat. 

It's late: the light that comes in from the window is hazy moonlight, which flows ebbing between gaps in the clouds. It falls on sterile hospital floors, dipping into the cracks between the slates. Naruto's eyes are still locked on the glass panel before them, looking down into the room below where somebody is lying attached to a life support machine, the constant 'bip, bip, bip,' pulsing rhythmically into the silence. There are people in that room, some wearing white coats, others lined up wearing masks, backs pressed flat against the white cold walls.

_"He lost a lot of blood, besides we don't know how long he was out there for." It's as though you can hear their inner thoughts of 'I just hope he doesn't wake up….'_

Naruto yawns again, the fifth time in the past five minutes. He can feel his conscious friend's penetrating stare boring into the back of his skull.

"Go to sleep right?" he asks, playfully, although in truth he doesn't feel much like laughing. His stomach feels clenched, doubled up and knotted tightly in figures of eights inside him.

He doesn't think he could sleep even if he wanted to. This is something bordering on obsession, and he just can't let go.

"Why…don't you just rest you eyes for a moment?"

Naruto finds himself smiling despite himself: you've got to give them credit for being persistent, he has to at least give them that. He nods in accordance, he's so undeniably tired that his only other option is to prop his eye lids open with match sticks anyway, at least if he falls asleep he'll still be here.

//_He won't get away so easily.//_

"He's not going anywhere Naruto, you know that don't you?"

Naruto lets himself slip a little down the chair, so the top of his head is leaning against the back. "Thanks Maru." There's a pause.

"For the other day…you kn-"

"Naruto, just stop babbling. Go on, go to sleep before I have to concuss you."

His eyes skate closed before he's even aware of it, his head rolls back and his breathing slows down a mere fraction, becoming rhythmic… and he begins to dream.

* * *

_Here it's ice cold, a pressing black against his eyes, someone's fingers smooth and supple. He's lead forwards by a strong grip on his wrist and spun round. Spun hard and fast, so he falls, and the world is still black. Because he can't, he won't, open his eyes, because he's been here before… he knows this dream too well._

_Someone is laughing at him, just above him, standing over his body, looking down. Through the blindfold he raises his head and clenches his jaw, exposing his throat to the predator, and it is a predator because it stalks all the way around him, assessing him from every angle. It doesn't miss an inch, it never does. He waits for it to settle over him, straddling his hips as it always does. He doesn't fight it, he's done so before of course, but to no avail, it only laughs, resistance amuses it, it makes it rougher, harder, faster, until it's spent and he's shattered, mind and body numb and splintered._

_Besides, he knows it wants that, and he's not going to pander to it's pleasure. It starts slowly, teasing down from his collar bone, hot tongue trailing up his neck to his ear, tracing the outer shell. He can feel it breathing, hot against his skin and he fights to suppress the quickening of his own heart as it nips the lobe of his ear, applying pressure to his lower abdomen with it's body._

_The mouth trails across his face, tongue hot and sweet, he swallows and feels fingers trace the movement of his Adam's apple, as it grins against his skin, murmuring, "Naruto," that voice so similar and yet so alien, "come love… stop resisting me." _

_He turns his head away from it, fingers raking into the ground beneath him as the mouth travels down, whispering incoherencies against his skin. He bites his tongue to stop the sound that tries to burst forwards when it leaves a trail of hot saliva down to his navel, sticking it's tongue directly into the small hole, and he gasps, he can't stop himself. It laughs again, hands against his hips, this is stupid, where are his clothes? Why does he feel so naked? Why does he always feel so naked?_

_Teeth grate teasingly against the lower part of his abdomen tasting the skin there, he smells of beeswax and tastes slightly salty, and again there's the pressure, hot and grinding this time, edging between his legs and spreading them._

_It's getting much harder to think now, as a mouth comes to capture his own and he's letting it, but keeps himself firmly closed, at it sucks at his lower lip, hot tip of the tongue tapping against his teeth, as it kisses his lips, then his eyes, his cheeks, following the line of his jaw. It's head moved to his neck again, nibbling the skin lightly at the junction of the collar bone, kissing the hollow. It's muttering something against the bone, he doesn't know what, it might as well be in another language as everything turns to gibberish inside his head._

_When did it get so hot? He can feel teeth again against the place where his shoulders meet his neck, sharp canines in a human mouth, bruising as they rake painfully over the tender skin that resides there, tongue sucking the slight blood spill the teeth leave, greedily, until there isn't enough blood left and in hunger it bites down. Down into his flesh, tearing skin, and he screams and arches and it's pressing down onto him hard, so there's more pressure and this delicious feeling of being possessed. It's teeth leave his shoulder, and he's whispering thoughts, as they come to him, as it moves to his mouth, plunging in through slightly parted lips, no longer shut, hot, wet and trembling, sucking on his tongue and filling him completely. It pulls back, to gaze at him, hands firm and hard against his shoulders, pressing him down beneath it, applying pressure between his legs so hot white shoots of sensation sizzle up and down his lower abdomen, making his toes curl and his body stretch. _

_For some reason he opens his eyes, for some reason he looks up into the face he knows will be staring down at him, eyes dark and insatiable, neither inky black or smoky grey. And suddenly the 'it' has a name, and is no longer so alien or frightening, and- _

_"Sasuke…" Naruto says breathlessly, from between parted bleeding lips, before the head lowers, swallowing the sound completely, as Sasuke begins to demonstrate what a prisoner Naruto's body really is to him._

* * *

Someone kicks Naruto's chair over in their sudden haste to get up; he lies sprawled on the floor, blue eyes flying open, looking dazed, unsure of why there's so much noise around him or even where he is. There's yelling, someone yelling his name, and screaming from down below, the sound of something being broken. Naruto scrambles to his feet; finger tips first, almost ripping muscles in his haste to get towards the window, tripping on his own feet, he smashes his shoulder against the metal bar, grunting at the pain and looking down. 

What he see's makes him feel as though somebody has knocked a hole in his stomach.

The room has been smashed, broken glass and equipment lying scattered across the floor in chaos, the bed is empty, sheets tossed and ripped and thrown half way across the room. The occupant is standing some feet behind it, back to the wall, three masked men facing him down; there are needles in one arm and the flash of something dark and metallic looking as he yells; face dark and dangerous like a panther. One of the men move; and out of reflex Sasuke hurtles the bed at them, the object splintering, catching one of the men off guard, colliding with his chest and sending him slamming to the floor.

Sasuke stands breathing heavily, while from up above Naruto can hear his own blood rushing tempestuously in his ears like a river. The movement of the dark-haired youth below is slightly jagged, as if he's lost motor control, and his eyes are pitch black as he looks to either side of him judging the distance to the door or window.

Naruto doesn't know why he shouts Sasuke's name when he does. He thinks it might have been to do with the fact that when one of the ninja moved, Sasuke didn't seem to see it, and as the blow connected with his spine, his own hands only just stopped him from falling. Sasuke's foot connects with someone's head in a beautifully fluid movement, and for some reason Naruto realises that there are hands on his shoulders and around his waist, dragging him backwards from the ledge of the window and back onto the floor again.

He's still yelling Sasuke's name, because Sasuke's standing there, still breathing heavily, face almost savage, facing down the last man, not seeming to noticed that the one he knocked down before is getting up, moving behind him. He just doesn't seem to realise.

Why?

An arm encircling Sasuke's neck, driving his vision sharply upwards, so he gags and gasps for air, he sees the panel of glass, the silent watchers looking down on him. At the opposite ends of the room the two young men are both being forcefully restrained, both pulling forwards. Pressure is being forced on Sasuke's knees as he buckles, but somehow he manages to keep his vision locked on the panel as hands press against his back and someone's yelling for the doctor and the sedative. He doesn't want to go back to sleep again because then there will be more of the nightmares. There's a jabbing pain between his shoulder blades, and he keeps staring desperately up, searching for a way out.

Except there is no way out, not really, not anymore. From the word go, he knew he'd end up in this situation, stuck between the sulphur pits of hell and the bottomless abyss of space. He's sealing his fate right now, in his mind, as his eyes lock into Naruto's, turbulent blue meeting shores of burnt ash riddled with smouldering embers, and both of them can feel it, the connection. It's a sharp jolt of electricity. For Naruto, it's the beginning of something, something long coming. But for Sasuke, it's the very end of hope.

The world blurs and slips….

_// Now the nightmares will come….//_

* * *

Feed back is of course loved, chapter has been edited by my wonderful Beta who kicks ass when it comes to well...Beta'ing stuff and seeing as I think this was her first time wow...because she basically kicked the crap out of my rough draft I sent her. XD 

Also, drabble for anybody who can suggest a good title for this...other then chapter two...

Love

The Eternity Dragon


	3. Dying, Living, Waking, Lying

Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did I'd certainly change a lot of things...and well, it would be very fangirly so XD I guess it's a good thing I'm not...

Chapter 3: **_Dying, Living, Waking, Lying._**

**Important:**

_Okay, before you start to read I owe you my dear reader a little explanation, I bashed about two idea's for this chapter, either starting from where I left off last chapter, or skipping a little ahead. In the end, I chose the latter, simply because this is a SasuNaru fic, and I want to write SasuNaru and you want to read it. Also, I think maybe it creates a nice little mystery that will be explained later...okay so it's basically my excuse for getting to write angst sooner but hey, that's fun to write and read isn't it? More fun then a lot of little technical bits that I always fall asleep in when I'm reading books, so without any further fuss, I'll cut (quite literally this time XD) to the chapter...enjoy!  
_

* * *

The digits flash in the semi darkness, a neon lime glow.

5:59.

The nine continues to flicker casting moving shadows on the sloping walls.

A little to the left someone makes a noise in their sleep: a sort of gurgling snore into the soft fabric of a pillow, that smothers it into a fluffy sort of sound. Almost absolute silence…. '_Almost_', because there's the sound of slight pressure outside the door, as if someone's standing right outside it, fingers on the handle, listening intently for movement inside. Seconds pass and nothing happens. The void spirals, dripping anticipation. Smoothly, the handle bends and the door- seemingly from its own accord- swings open a fraction.

There is no light in the hallway, only pitch black and swallowing shadows as the door continues to swing, sinister and smoothly.

Somebody is standing there in the darkness.

The digits flash 5:59 for the last time, and as the number jumps to 6:00am the alarm starts its awful high-pitched ring.

Naruto yells as the machine screams into his ear, and promptly falls straight out of the side of his bed onto the cold unyielding floor. Groggily he sits up and turns on the light, and then frowns: he doesn't remember having left the door open before he went to sleep. Shrugging his shoulders and thinking nothing of it he yawns, arms up and over his head, tonsils exposed to the world. He falls groggily backwards in a dead stupor.

The alarm rings again.

_//Damn machine…//_

* * *

The key slides in the lock, giggling a little as levers lift. It's slightly rusty and gets jammed sometimes. Irritably Naruto wedges his shoulder against the door, using his weight as an added incentive for the hinges to swing open.

It bursts somewhat abruptly into his corridor and he trips in astonishment over the welcome mat and lands sprawled like a beached whale all over the front step. The contents of the shopping bags he was holding go rolling all the way down the wooden floorboards. Cursing his enormous feet- he's always been ashamed of them ever since Sakura mentioned it once in bed, giggling that they reminded her of clown's shoes and that they amused her. Naruto frowns.

_//Hardly the most flattering attribute of my general appearance, thank-you. //_

He scrambles after the cartons on his hands and knees- he thinks he might have lost half the broccoli shoot but he can't find it. Most of it at least has been recovered. He thinks he dropped both of the shopping bags, although, he's sure he brought three…?

He makes his way into the crampt kitchen whistling cheerfully. It should be noted that the kitchen isn't crampt because it's small; it's crampt because it's untidy.

_//And untidy is putting it very lightly…//_

A quick glance reveals there to be coat hangers sticking out of some the utensil draws; a stash of comics in the bread bin; a blown light bulb in the sink and a spatula stuck into the door of the microwave. The walls are liberally splashed with a multitude of different colours, mostly liberating oranges and yellows alternating sometimes into a deep rich shade of vivid red.

Naruto likes his kitchen. It has a cheerful friendly environment that seems to welcome him in, greeting him. Sakura loathes his kitchen. It's far too noisy in her opinion, and the fact that it looks as though some alien creature slithered all over it does not lend itself to the furnishings. After a small learning curb, Naruto had decided that on the rare occasions Sakura would agree to sleeping over at his apartment - only ever in the time of a dire emergency, like when her flat had flooded and she'd had to stay with him for an entire week - that it was easier just to order take out, eat in one of the bedrooms and put an 'Out of order' sign on the kitchen door.

Although if he was bored it was always fun to lead her in there and watch her go from a 'good' mood to having miniature kittens in under thirty seconds flat.

As he deposits the shopping onto the counter boards, still singing to himself, he pauses to say a caring "good morning" to the spiky potted cactus sitting in the windowsill.

He begins to noisily clatter about, putting things away and leaving things out for later. He wants breakfast soon and he'll be damned if he got up early this morning for nothing. It's when he opens the fridge that a slight predicament surfaces in the form of an interesting, large green fungus growing at the back of the vegetable draw….

_//Well that doesn't look very appetising//_

There's also an unpleasant sour smell coming from an open carton of milk. He knows better about the milk though: he's _not_ about to spend another day running back and forth to the toilet, oh no, not after last time. Not if he can possibly help it.

The carton goes straight in the bin along with the entire contents of the vegetable draw, which seem to be transforming into various fluffy forms. After some thoughtful consideration, which involves Naruto frowning at the bin for some time, contemplating whether or not spoiled milk and mouldy vegetables could possibly be the formulae for producing carnivorous man-eating mutant plants, he takes the rubbish bin outside. Just to be safe.

You can never be too careful.

Still humming as he comes back in, he rubs his hands together and starts to cook a godly breakfast, otherwise known as ramen.

* * *

Half an hour later Naruto slowly traverses the stairs, hands in pockets, his footsteps strangely muted as he climbs the top steps, and pauses licking his lips.

It's odd. He lives alone but has a two-bedroom apartment each with a separate bathroom, and a spare room that he doesn't use. Kiba used to ask why when he first moved in promptly after he and Sakura had just started going out together. Naruto used to grin at this, that easy laid back smile, and say he "didn't read the fine print". Kiba would look confused and open his mouth to say something else until he was kicked by Ino- as much out of satisfaction than as a hint- or more discretely Shikamaru. The truth of the matter was however, Naruto had brought the two-bedroom apartment because he had wanted Sakura to move in with him. He had hated living alone as a child; and as an adult, or at least a child playing adult, he hated it even more. But the bold light of reality had been that Sakura had had no intention of moving in with Naruto, and had her own modest, neatly furnished apartment the other side of the village. It hadn't been out of conscious thought she had done this, just something that sensibility had dictated to her. Usually five nights out of seven Naruto would sleep over at her place: sometimes more, sometimes less. He was welcome as long as he didn't touch the décor and brought his own toothbrush. Neither was he allowed to touch her kitchen, which was, perhaps, understandable…. The mere thought of her own kitchen being in that… **_state_**… was enough to bring a cold sweat to her forehead.

For Naruto, his own apartment felt somewhat empty, especially at night. Alone in his single bed pushed up against the wall, which he still manages to fall out of every single morning.

The room he sleeps in is actually supposed to be the guest room. It's the room next door with the double bed that's the master bedroom. But he can't sleep in there. There's nothing more depressing then waking up in a double bed, alone.

It's to this bedroom he's going to now.

He walks down the corridor, feet making minimal noise on the wooden floorboards. He pauses outside the door, hands frozen over the wood, fist clenched and hovering. He licks his lips again and blinks his cornflower blue eyes.

_//Oh for god sakes, just knock already//_

Once more he steals a glance down the corridor. The sunlight is streaming clear and strong through the double windows, leaving golden criss-crossed patterns on the floor.

Gently he knocks, and the sounds seem to slip and slide into nothingness as the inside of the room swallows it entirely. He knocks again, feeling awkward all of a sudden and slightly embarrassed. Should he wait? Should he go in? Should he leave?

There's no answer from inside, so nibbling at his bottom lip he decides to chance it.

//_It's his bloody place after all isn't it//_

He has all the right to dance in there, wearing nothing but a fig leaf and singing the theme song from the Lion King! …Not that he's going to, but he could nonetheless. The _possibility_ is there.

Cautiously he opens the door a fraction. Inside the curtains are drawn, and the light creeps drably from under the thick material, dissipating after a few centimetres into the overwhelming darkness.

_//Maybe he's sleeping//_

He opens the door a little wider, fully expecting it to be slammed back hard in his face.

Nothing happens.

The tension seems to mount to a climax in Naruto's stomach. He exhales through his mouth, swallows, and then chances it and sticks his head through the gap between the door and the wall he's just opened up.

The murky gloom of the room casts sombre greys across the walls and floor. It creates obscene shadows on the ceiling: he can see curling fangs and the stippled image of a cave entrance beneath the fan mounted in the corner. Slowly his vision shifts, moving towards the bed and its occupant, whom he can't see but knows innately to be there. His gut seems to tingle as he opens his mouth, voice slightly hoarse:

"Hey… are you awake?"

His whisper is just audible, but the form on the bed doesn't move. It has it's back to him.

"…Sasuke," Naruto persists, in that same tone of voice as though someone is dying: "I made you breakfast, are you hungry?"

Nothing.

Not even an insult.

Which he might have even welcomed.

_//Might… // _

So either Sasuke is ignoring him, which is highly probable; he's actually asleep, which is equally likely; or… he's dead.

With the last one, Naruto isn't too sure of what to do. The other two are relatively simple to sort out: just leave him alone, he'll get up when he wants to. Naruto closes the door again and leans against it, thinking if Sasuke really is dead he'll start to smell after a while, in which case he'll be able to call Iruka up in hysterics and blackmail him into removing said dead body from his apartment.

Smiling to himself Naruto walks back down the corridor again, and slides down the banisters.

* * *

"He's crazy. Didn't I tell you he was crazy?" Shikamaru proposes from the hallway, hands in pockets, slipping off his sandals. He's talking to Kiba, in Naruto's kitchen with Hinata, who is meanwhile asking why there is a broccoli stalk in the umbrella stand.

"I thought the term you used before was Irresponsible Git-Head?" Kiba replies, watching with interest as Naruto takes the vegetable from Hinata and drops it promptly in the sink.

"Yes, that too, but my main point was that he's crazy," Shikamaru corrects, taking his usual seat by the door. He swings back lazily in the chair, angular head tilted slightly to the left as he surveys Naruto critically.

The tousled haired youth is glaring at both of them, head on the palm of his left hand as he sits at the table, brows raised incredulously.

"Do you guys even feel it when you chip away piece by piece at my self esteem?"

"No," they both answer simultaneously.

Naruto chews his tongue, caught between amusement and annoyance. In truth it's very difficult to stay irritated with either of them for any long period of time outside of a day. That doesn't mean to say that they're forgiven, but it's an excuse.

"Is the only reason you decided to drop by to insult me?"

As a matter of fact Kiba does this about three times a week, almost always on a Wednesday morning, sometimes with Shikamaru in tow, most other times just by himself or with Akamaru. Kiba seems to have a sixth sense for when the best or worst times to drop by are: either just as lunch is being served, or like that disastrous time he got hit with a pineapple after he let himself in through the backdoor.

"Well, as tempting as that may be," Kiba says, grinning his wolfish grin and rubbing the tip of his nose, "it wasn't the only reason. Dear Maru here has been worrying over you like a mother hen. So we thought we'd drop by and just check if you where still alive, in case poor old Maru's heart just gave up completely from the suspense, dear old lady that he is."

"I beg your pardon," Shikamaru cuts across, "I do remember _someone_ trying to persuade me to break into this very apartment last night, just to make sure he was _still alive_. That's all very well, when you're woken up by someone's hypoglycaemic rant at a normal time, but at _three_ in the _morning_, that's just… well, that's just not polite." He raises his eyebrows poignantly.

Kiba throws an arm out over the back of the chair and squares his shoulders.

"You sayin' you weren't the tiniest bit anxious too?"

Shikamaru moves his mouth slightly forming a thin line as if contemplating an answer, and then thinking better of it, looks up at the ceiling; swinging back on his chair.

_// Can't really argue with that now can you//_

Kiba grunts, an eye narrowed, and makes a low clucking noise. Which is ignored.

"So… Naruto?" Hinata asks, her voice quiet but at ease. There's the comforting pressure of Kiba's foot against the base of her chair as she sits up a little straighter. Unlike the boys she has the sensibility to get straight down to the point, and Naruto is looking at her kindly with his beautiful blue eyes, head on his folded arms now, mouth in a distant sort of smile that gives her a warming sensation which bubbles in her stomach.

"How's it been with Sasuke-kun?"

Kiba and Shikamaru who had at this point been obstinately looking in opposite directions from each other, both turn their heads, exchange a brief glance and subtly (or unsubtly in Kiba's case) pay greater attention to this change in conversation.

"Sasuke?" Naruto laughs, he didn't pretend for a moment not to know this was the real reason they had been round, and last night too, and yesterday morning although technically Sasuke hadn't actually been relocated to his until the afternoon. They had all been sitting with him on the front steps of his apartment helping him to swallow down butterflies of nerves.

"I haven't seen him actually, he's been erh… sleeping, I think, since he got here. In fact I don't think I've heard him move from the bedroom. Well he might have this morning when I went out to do the shopping."

"Do you know how stupid that was?" Shikamaru cuts across looking slightly irritated again, dusky angular eyes narrowed, as he settles his chin onto his open palm.

"What?" asks Naruto genuinely confused, "Going shopping?"

"Yes, well no, not just that, everything really. You're just a huge idiot when it comes down to it so I don't know why I didn't presume this would happen before. I obviously didn't factor the complete extent of your idiocy into the equation." He paused trying to remember where he had been going with this. Ah, yes-

"You left a shopping bag in the store you moron."

"I did? Oh... Yes I did! How did you know?" He frowns at them suddenly, blue eyes narrowed, even giving Hinata an accusatory glare. "You haven't been stalking me again have you? Because I warned you last time to nev-"

"Oh don't be ridiculous Naruto, we only did that the one time, and it turned out to be an entirely pointless exercise."

"It was intrusive!"

"I don't know about intrusive," Kiba interjects mildly, leaning across the table to give Shikamaru a provocative waggle of his eyebrows. "…More like Intensely Disturbing on our behalf."

"Yes… well, what you saw will never leave this room." Snaps Naruto, flushing a little, the whisker like scars on his cheeks seeming to deepen.

"So… _no_ speaking about Virginia?"

"Virginia? Whose Virginia?" Hinata asks, non-plussed.

"His cactus!" Then both males burst into simultaneous laughter. "We kept hearing him talking to someone called Virginia. Except he doesn't know a Virginia, so we thought maybe," Kiba sniggered, "he had a secret girlfriend or something like that. So Maru and I followed him round for a bit."

"After a while," -the other took over as Kiba collapsed into helpless giggles- "we realised he was only ever talking to 'Virginia' in the kitchen," -Shikamaru's eyes too are glistening- "Then we burst in on him one day, only to find him… well, deep in conversation-"

"With a pff-plant!" Kiba manages to choke out through tears, fists clenched and slamming onto the table top.

"You guys," Naruto says between slightly clenched teeth looking up at the ceiling lamp, "you swore you'd never tell anyone."

Kiba waves his hand in an airy manner, and replies with not a little irony:

"This is Hinata for god sakes Naru, don't choke on your boxers. Realistically? Would she ever tell anyone?" And then adds after some consideration, looking at Hinata as though in a whole new light, "Would you?"

Hinata looks aghast, but this might be for a number of factors, one that so bad are her friend's intercommunication skills that they resort to stalking in order to ascertain the truth. Two that Kiba would ever suspect that she would tell anyone. And three that Naruto is currently in a long-term relationship with a particularly knobbly cactus.

"No." she says, as close to outrage as Hinata can ever get, a sort of mild disapproval. Kiba grins fondly at her, exposing his sharp canines, and props his head back on his folded arms and sticks his other foot on the base of her chair.

"So," Shikamaru continues to press on with a matter that actually has some consequence, "about Sasuke?"

"I know you guy's simply think I'm inept or something like that, but it's really not such a big deal." Naruto tells them simply, massaging his temples, and blowing messy strands of bright gold hair from his eyes.

"Yeah, but you guy's have '**_History'_**," Kiba points out, slightly over-emphasising the 'history' part with his fingers. Shikamaru looks pained. "Surely that counts for something awkward, doesn't it?"

_// I would have thought so too…isn't that odd//_

What Kiba is trying bravely to avoid saying is "remember what happened last time? When he walked off, remember how badly torn up you where about it?" You're still torn up about it now. That's the funny thing about scars, although new skin may form over the hurt, you're never quite the same again. There's always some sort of indent, or impression left, sometimes an old scar may ache if it went in deep enough. Naruto remembers very well what the pain was like, the sort that hurts every time you breathe.

"On a more practical strand," Shikamaru interrupts as he picks up an apple from the fruit bowl and bites into it, "how do you know he won't try to kill you?"

_// Blunt as a spoon as always, huh//_

Naruto picks three apples up from the fruit bowel and begins to try and juggle with them. He tosses one up and lets it fall back into his receiving fingers again, before trying with two. It seems to work well enough: he chances the third.

"Oi, moron, stop showing off and answer!"

Naruto grins, keeping his eyes fixed on the apples as they fall after each other, his hands constantly in motion. He knows in a second one is very likely to fall, but he can't help and keep the game going. He's going to end up with a face full of very bruised apples in a minute.

"Don't you….think…that will….be a ….little difficult…in his….current…whoops!...condition?"

He asks in between the rise and fall of the apples.

"It would be more difficult if he where dead." Shikamaru says tartly, looking at the apples in distaste.

Naruto's concentration slips at this and he fumbles with an apple, so Hinata speedily leans across the table and plucks the apple out of thin air before it lands in his face.

"Wow…" Kiba says lowly, whistling between his teeth and looking at Shikamaru with undisguised horror, "you just don't give a damn about bad karma now do you?"

Shikamaru spares him a single dirty look.

"Maru…" Naruto says very slowly, "are you suggesting I kill Sasuke?"

From the opposite end of the table Kiba shivers, rubbing his arms as though apparently cold muttering, "That's just inviting it now…." Shikamaru sticks his tongue between his teeth inside his mouth, his dark eyes surveying Naruto. He should have known from the beginning anything involving this idiot would eventually reach him and drive him slowly insane.

Between him, Choji, Ino, Kiba and now to his great displeasure Sasuke, all the stress was going to turn him prematurely grey.

It must have been some sort of conspiracy.

_// Very clever... //_

"Well, not in so many words. I'm just saying, you know, that if he were dead, and if you guys had listened to me, we'd all probably be a whole lot better off."

"Shikamaru!" Both Hinata and Kiba say simultaneously looking appalled.

"Can you hear yourself when you talk Maru?" Naruto asks, he's trying hard to mask the smile that he can feel creeping up his lips, Kiba just stares, jaw open.

"Or is it just some buzzing sound? Because all I can hear is yadda yadda something you know I disagree with, yadda yadda…and I'm right you're wrong."

He laughs when he meets Shikamaru's gaze to find it half serious, half teasing, he knows what his friend is trying to do, reminding him to stay on his guard. He knows perfectly well that if Hinata weren't here they'd do what they did last time he'd nearly got himself killed on a mission. Shikamaru would have Kiba pin him to the floor, then pour a tumbler of water all over him and have Aukamaru sit on his head. He had turned several shades of blue and nearly suffocated to death before they had decided to let him up again. Not a pleasant experience.

"I'm hungry," he says, changing the subject and pushing his chair back towards the kitchen sink. "I'll make lunch, shall I?"

"Yum," Kiba interjects enthusiastically, bouncing up. "Make Tonkotsu again, yeah?" He looks about eagerly for something to do; Hinata's already moving to help. (They know better then to ask Shikamaru: the earth could be under invasion from aliens from the ninth moon of Zeptar and he wouldn't shift a finger to help.)

Hinata begins quite logically, by trying to clean up one of the counter tops, which is covered with empty bowls and a used saucepan. She takes these all over to the sink which she fills with warm soapy water and dunks the dirty dishes in, having no problem herself with washing china.

She turns about, lifting a tea towel to find a bowl full of cold ramen underneath it, unused chopsticks lying by its side.

"Naruto," she says in some confusion, turning round to find Kiba and Naruto in a heated argument about who ate who's packed lunch the other day, ("they were dog biscuits you moron!") and Shikamaru taking the opportunity to thumb through Naruto's mail.

"…Are you going to eat this?"

"Uh?" His eyes fall on the china bowl, and he frowns looking for the first time slightly depressed.

"I made it for Sasuke this morning, but he didn't eat it."

"He refused?"

"No, he just… I dunno, when he wants to eat he'll eat I guess. I'm not going to run around after him and force him to digest my cooking...I'm not going to force him to do anything actually. I've never met anyone who can sulk as well as Sasuke Uchiha."

_// So very very true. //_

"Yeah but," Kiba salivates eyeing up the bowl, "that's just rude to put food like that to waste."

"Leave it," Shikamaru say's from the table in his no nonsense voice. "Sit down."

Kiba sits down looking disappointed, his ears seem to droop slightly.

"Good boy." Shikamaru mutters without looking up from what seems to be Naruto's electricity bill from the way he's grimacing, "So are you going to hurry up and feed us or what?"

* * *

Slowly there is a rise from the subconscious, breaking the thick film that separates a world of shadows from the realm of reality. The layer flickers, wavering for a moment before breaking completely. Like ripples on the surface of a pond, spreading surely outwards, connecting and diverging into something else much wider.

From beneath it Sasuke Uchiha shifts, mind whirring in slow circles as he begins to wake. His eyelids feel insurmountably heavy as he looks up at the ceiling of a room he doesn't recognise, studying it with his eyes. Light trails from cracks in the curtain behind his head and he winces as it falls across his face, stinging his eyes. Slowly he leans out of the bed: he feels vaguely sick, dark strands of hair are sticking to his pale clammy forehead as he staggers to his feet, and everything swims. His hands clutch the rim of the mattress to keep him from falling as he slams ungracefully against the bedpost.

Thoughts are whirring in his mind at break-neck speed, colliding and fragmenting, too fast to process, and he grimaces. Placing one hand to his forehead he wishes they'd all stop. He'd wish for the silence again if it didn't remind him so much of death; he'd ask for sleep if it meant escape, but it doesn't. If he sleeps, he'll see it. Over and over and over and over again, he'll see it without pause. He doesn't ever want to dream again, or sleep for that matter, but his body defies him. It keeps him as a human, limited, useless, worthless thing; and it's proven itself as such, he thinks bitterly.

Sasuke grits his teeth and stares hard at the floor, grey eyes focusing as he wills everything to be still.

Collecting himself, he briefly he allows his mind to reflect on past and current events, where he is now is… Naruto's apartment, because they don't think he can really…. He laughs, but the sound that comes from his throat sounds more like a violent cough as it catches wrenchingly in his chest.

It's because they're bored of prodding him with needles and sticking him in some machine, strapped down and sedated until he's out of his mind for hours on end like some lab experiment. They've looked, they've analysed and their conclusion is he's no threat, oh no… not anymore thanks to….

Sasuke opens his mouth experimentally, cold dry air rushing to the warm insides of his mouth he tries to form a word. No sound comes out, and his smoky eyes flash with anger as he tries again. The same result, the silence falling deadpan onto him, and he feels like he's being mocked. Laughed at. Things start to crumble to pieces in front of him and he has to fight down the overwhelming urge to start smashing things up again. Violence has been a way of coping for him over the previous years: he can channel thoughts and memories and feelings through it without having to think.

The worrying thing is that he likes it too.

Slowly he lets himself slide to his knees, cool fingers pressed over the hot sockets of his eyes. He knows full well that destroying things won't help him now. He has to get a grip, he has to think, and think clearly.

Briefly he looks down at his wrists, both of which are bandaged heavily, and an ugly sneer flickers up one side of his mouth. It is followed by a powerful surge of concentrated hate and anger searing through his abdomen.

_// So they're hiding it like that, are they//_

He slips his shirt up and over his head, removing the soft fabric into a pile on the floor and allowing the cold air to assail his skin; he draws in a short hiss of anger as he sees the bandages across his chest too. His fingers itch: he wants to pull _Them_ off, wants his nails to dig into the skin underneath and drag the damn _Things_ out. Except he knows that it's useless, and that he's tried it before, to absolutely no avail. All it creates is more pain than he knows how to deal with.

Slowly, Sasuke stands up, ignoring the world as it wobbles slightly. He's hungry, and he postulates that something is supposed to be done about food. He makes his way to the door, fingers brushing the handle. He considers the fact that he's semi-naked, wearing god-knows-whose clothes, because he certainly doesn't like them; and that his skin smells vaguely of antiseptic and bleach.

It's when he turns and looks at the closet with some scepticism that he notices the pile of clothes on the chair beside it. Pinned to the top there's a note scrawled in untidy handwriting, that reads:

'Hey, thought you might want these.

Your bathroom is just next door.

Oh, and you've got your own toothbrush, right?'

For a brief moment Sasuke stares at the note, something swirling through him that he doesn't understand, before he shakes it off and heads wordlessly through the door.

* * *

_// Oh for God's **SAKE**//_

This really is quite ridiculous. Sasuke has been standing at the top of the stairs now for a whole twenty minutes, and still hasn't moved.

It's not like he's been routed to the spot or anything, he just… he just… he surmises at least, that he just doesn't want to go downstairs.

Noises are drifting up from the rooms below: laughter and the clattering sound of china mingling with the babble of people talking.

Sasuke allows himself to slump against the wall, taking into account the messy wallpaper and the bright pictures on the wall. Somewhere down by the bottom steps, someone has placed a hand covered in purple paint on the wall. Either by accident or on purpose Sasuke really can't tell. It strikes him as an odd thing to do… wait, take that back: the whole thing seems an odd. He finds himself slipping further to the floor, knees pulled up to his chest, back against the wall, still perched almost timidly like a child on the top ledge.

What is this anyway? He vaguely remembers people telling him things, but the information is a blur. It slips in and out, told in times when he was heavily sedated to moments when the pain was so bad he couldn't even remember his own name, let alone what he was doing here.

Why have they stuck him here of all places? With that fool Naruto?

_// Naruto…//_

Sasuke smiles.

That's if you can call it a smile: he tilts his head back as he does it, cruel twisted line working up the sides of his flushed and pouting mouth. It's not quite a sneer: it's too elegant for that; and yet somehow it's demeaning.

So, this is the older Naruto's life is it? Sasuke almost feels like laughing. It's ironic how normal, how bright, how cheerful it all is. He surmises from the general chaotic décor that he hasn't changed much. He's still that naïve idiot he always was… but mind you that's a given isn't it? Seeing as how _he's_ here in the first place. Only a fool would have given him a second chance after what he did. He wouldn't have given himself a second chance if he were in Naruto's position. He would have looked at himself clear in the face and told him where he could fuck off to. But Naruto's not him. He's clueless in comparison and he has no conception of what this could eventually lead to.

What this will eventually lead to.

Not because he wants it to, but because there is no other choice.

Images flicker through Sasuke's mind, and it's like he's watching a spin reel of flickering orange and turbulent gold and those laughing blue eyes. All the naivety, all the motion, all the joy and all the energy seems to flow: and without acknowledging it, Sasuke's lips curve at the corners very, very slightly.

Then he sees again what he did in that circular white room, the one with the high window. He sees the person standing far, far above him, arguing against restraints, face and expression so familiar and yet so altered.

It hadn't been… well it was…. Of course it was… time had past…. Just because it wasn't what he remembered… it was still Naruto.

Wasn't it?

His…old… no…ex?

Yes, that's it.

His ex-best friend.

The one he threw away, because he couldn't get what he wanted.

Because he wasn't strong enough.

The one he had traded in.

_// Screw you. //_

And again that smile, that's not really a smile, but a sort of grimace. Not exactly self-pitying, not as much as it is self-loathing.

_// Fool that you are, fool that you always will be. //_

From the gap beneath one of the closed doors a babble of conversation ascends, accompanied by more laughter, some male and one female Sasuke surmises. Vaguely he wonders who's in there, and why. ANBU checking that he hasn't killed Naruto yet? He doubts it somehow.

"You are unbelievable," he can hear Naruto snapping, and he tilts his head slightly, drawing his knees closer to his chest, listening.

A chair scraps back and there's more laughter: "I turned my back for one minute and it's gone."

"Ahh, well time wasted on one man is time gained for another!" A voice he knows but cannot place.

"That was awfully profound for you," someone else says suspiciously: this voice too vaguely familiar, less so than the other one.

"Regardless," the first continues, sounding pleased, "I still think we should stick with the previous proposal. That we all spend the night here."

"You know, that's really not necessary. Greatly appreciated, but still _not_ necessary."

This time the voice is Naruto's, and Sasuke recognises the timbre: gentle yet stern and highly inflexible.

"I do think I can take care of someone, in his urh… condition. I mean it's hardly a threat. He was here last night and nothing untoward happened."

"Last night," the unfamiliar voice puts forward again, "he was sedated and quite frankly to put it another way: high. But odds are he's going to be more active and more troublesome as time passes."

Sasuke sits up, expression slight and dangerous. He doesn't like being discussed behind anybodies back: much less when he can hear it.

"Maru," -and it's Naruto again- "you guys can't move in with me. There's not enough space."

"Yes there will be!" The lower, more animalistic one chime's in: the voice sounds like the mouth is grinning. "We'll use your bedroom and you can sleep in the living room."

Sasuke releases the grip on his legs and swings his feet onto the second-to-top step,

_// They're doing what//_

"But, I don't want to sleep on the sofa!" Naruto protests, "It's lumpy and uncomfortable!"

"Well you wouldn't have to," the laconic one interrupts, "if you'd been sensible and said no, like everyone thought you'd do. Because, God, we can only dish out so many second chances to those who-just-don't-deserve-them now can't we? I mean what idiot does that? Willingly? After he's been screwed over, tossed aside, and… well, leached off."

"You're very long winded, did you know that?"

"Shut up."

"Leached off?" someone else asks, a girl's voice, softly, "What do you mean 'leached off'?"

To Sasuke it sounds as if the two young men laugh derisively, "What I say," the other replies: "Naruto was surpassing him and he couldn't handle it."

"Hey." This time, it's Naruto's voice sounding defensive and slightly hot: "Don't degrade him like that. There was more-"

"But it was a part of it: a major part of it I'm sure, and he deserves _nothing better_ Naruto. Especially this. You amaze me sometimes, you really do. But not in a good way."

Sasuke doesn't really know why it angered him so much to hear it. Maybe because it was spoken in such a matter of fact way. Maybe because he'd never wanted to admit to himself that that was the truth, and he didn't like it. It was like looking at your reflection and despising it; trying to smash the mirror with your fist, only to find it wouldn't shatter and left shards of silver splinters in your skin.

It was before he even realised that he was doing it: walking down the stairs, hands in pockets, eyes dark as he heard the voices falter at the footsteps outside the door. As it swung open as aggressively as he felt, slamming into the wall and juddering, then it clicked. And he was once again aware of a room full of people, staring at him, with surprise intermingled with a little fear and dislike.

He was tall. Probably taller than all of them by an inch or two, his pale features strangely accentuated by the black polar neck and trousers he wore. The whole of his body, still slender and darkly powerful stood commanding and authoritive in the doorway. His eyes slid with apparent disdain across all of its occupants, finally coming to rest on the one the furthest away. The only one who looks back without any hostility, animosity or even fear: which is what he expects.

He doesn't know why the look echoes so much inside his own mind. Perhaps it's not what he thought it would be. Perhaps it's because it's whole, unaffected: almost emotionless towards him, with no opinion.

Perhaps because it was from him, he wanted the greatest reaction.

Naruto taps his fingers pleasantly on the table, sucking in a breath as he feels the suddenly awkward and to some extent hostile atmosphere that has settled over like a thick fog.

"Sasuke," he says, breaking the silence. For some reason he feels like it's just the two of them in the room alone, without another soul.

"Do the walking dead get hungry? I'm afraid I simply don't know."

* * *

Thank you very much to everyone who suggested the title to the last chapter, I decided to go with eventually : The Skeleton Bridge, awesome suggestion thank you X3 !!! (Actually I kinda want to use all the suggestions I got :S)

Once again thank you to my editor-sama who kicked all the lines into place for me...and at some part I might illustrate...or you know just doodle Fish Bird, but I've reached over the 20,000 word mark XD so I'm happy now! Also if chapter four is sometime this week as well don't kill me, I just can for some reason write this really fast.  
Hope you enjoyed


	4. Chapter 4

Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon

Disclaimer: If Naruto was well and truly mine, I'd well...want to do some unspeakable things to some of the main characters and would probably abuse Itachi to the point of sin , and have Orochimaru's evil minions call him 'Oreo cookie' in their spare time...Aren't you glad I'm not?

Chapter Four

* * *

_// Walking dead? What on earth//_

The air is filled with such contempt that it's practically touchable.

Sasuke wonders why Naruto is smiling at him like that, like it's all okay, like the figure to his left isn't about to spring up and over table and bite him.

_//Simple, he's obviously delusional….//_

"You guys were just leaving weren't you?" he says cheerfully, cornflower blue eyes skimming the table, looking into everyone's cynical expressions. There's something about the whole genuine twist of his mouth that makes everyone soften slightly. It's a fantastic smile, flirtatious, reassuring and gratifying all at the same time.

The Hyuga girl gets up first, blinking her pale eyes and brushing dark hair from around her face. She taps the feral looking one on the shoulder, who twitches slightly, blinking: amber eyes sliding narrowed between him and Naruto, not giving an inch.

There is another one leaning back on the far sided chair near the door: he has an expression of lazy dislike clawing up one side of his mouth. But he moves, nodding curtly at Naruto, moving through the door that the Hyuga girl is holding open for him.

"Kiba," the girl says again. A softly authoritative voice, gently persuading tones punctuating it: "you promised you'd walk me home today."

She smiles warmly at Naruto as Kiba glances back at her, head cocked to one side in a lightly inquisitive expression. "I did?"

They both nod, Naruto moving to open the door a little wider, "Yeah you did, it's a long walk and it'll get dark soon."

"Well if I **_promised_**," Kiba says somewhat pompously throwing out his chest and leaping up from the table (not before giving Sasuke one of the filthiest looks he has ever received - Kiba's impressive at those) "let's go shall we?"

And he bounds out the door to join Shikamaru in the hallway, babbling about 'taking-Hinata-back-by-the-long-route-because-it's-so-much-prettier-that-way-and-will-you-please-hurry-up-Maru-you're-like-an-old-man!'

Naruto shakes his head as Hinata giggles, sending a pretty flush over the pale creamy complexion of her face, making her seem suddenly much more vivacious and somehow alluring, but innocently so.

"Thanks…" he murmurs quietly as Sasuke watches them, his own eyes narrowed. He doesn't know why, but he's feeling slightly hot as he watches Naruto leaning against his kitchen wall. All of his long limber body slanted as he supports his body with one outstretched hand so that he's leaning on an angle, his mouth close to Hinata with which he seems to be having a whispered conversation because she's laughing again. Sasuke doesn't know why he wants to watch the way Naruto's mouth moves, he just does… he's never seen a mouth quite like it before, wide and tasty and beautifully expressive.

Kiba sticks his head around the door again, not missing the opportunity to throw Sasuke another dirty look, and asks 'if-they're-leaving-this-year-or-next-because-he-wants-to-know-what-the-hell-they-have-to-talk-about-anyway-and-Naruto-will-you-please-stop-taking-up-Hinata's-precious-time?'

Naruto and Hinata exchange a look at this, and Naruto suggestively raises his eyebrows and leans forwards to kiss Hinata on the cheek. Closing his eyes so his dark disarming lashes flutter across her skin, then pulls back again grinning like a fox as a delicate, rosy pink spreads across her face. He winks at her as Kiba flares his nostrils indignantly; snaps: "That's not funny!"; and snorts, grabbing her by an arm, muttering obscenities under his breath, dragging Hinata out into the hallway.

Naruto follows, still smiling, pausing by the door and giving Sasuke a quick glance over his shoulder as if in after thought: "Do you mind just waiting for a quick second?" he asks, but doesn't wait for an answer, and the door clicks shut.

Sasuke finds himself looking at green oak panel work that clashes horribly with the bright orange stripe that lingers messily over the door-frame.

He blinks, and feels almost uncomfortable, which is a huge feat for him because he makes it a habit never to feel uncomfortable: he's trained himself to make _other_ people feel that way.

Vaguely he supposes that Naruto '_and co_._'_ must be outside discussing him. The rabid one had certainly been giving out enough '_I hate you'_ and '_go die'_ vibes for him to choke on. He vaguely recognizes all of them, although of their names he only has a fuzzy recollection. Not that it matters anyway, they're not really important.

He thinks he can hear Naruto protesting that 'it'll be fine, that everything's fine and that everyone should just relax… yes tomorrow morning is okay, just you know… not too early.'

Sasuke rolls his eyes. Out of habit he bites the tip of his tongue between his teeth, and it gives him an angry look that's reflected in the straight line of his mouth, as he pulls his shoulders unnervingly straight and takes a seat in one of the kitchen chairs.

The front door clangs shut, and after half a moment's pause the door opens again, and Naruto comes through, a sort of easy distant smile on his face as he looks at Sasuke.

There's more then half the room between them as Naruto stops. It feels like several miles, and a slight chill descends. Tossing his head to the side slightly, so that choppy golden trails of hair move out of his eyes and gather about his forehead; Naruto licks his lips, looks down at his feet, and then up again at Sasuke and shrugs his shoulders as if he's at a loss for what to say.

He blinks instead, meeting Sasuke's interrogating glare head on.

_// Were his eyes always that blue? Or had I just forgotten…?//_

"So, I guess you're hungry, yeah?" he asks after an uncomfortable silence. The rhythm of nothingness seems to pulse between them: Sasuke can feel it throbbing in his fingertips, and starts to tap them across the table top.

_// Who the hell would have thought it would be this hard//_

Slowly, his eyes not moving from Naruto's, Sasuke Uchiha nods.

Naruto turns round to the sink, presenting all of his broad wide back to dark young man's analytic gaze. "You know," he continues, absolutely determined to keep the conversation flowing, "I made you breakfast earlier. I came up to tell you but I think you where asleep because you didn't answer. Mind you," he adds - laughing suddenly as he sees his reflection in the soapy water of the basin: fuzzy and distorted - "you always used to ignore everything I said when we were younger, so I don't know why I'd expect you to listen to me now."

Sasuke doesn't say anything in return to this, and where Sasuke can't see him, Naruto pulls a face: not quite of annoyance, but of hard, gritting determination.

He will do this: he won't be cowed in any form or manner.

"Mind you," he presses forwards, "you always did sleep like the devil on a Sunday morning, and I don't suppose you've moved since you got here yesterday evening. I didn't hear you get up anyway. Sleeping off the sedative I suppose."

He gives a glance over his shoulder at this, steam rising and swirling around his neck as he raises the lid off the stew pot.

Sasuke's gaze slips from the high point on Naruto's shoulder that he had seemed to fix on. Smoky black eyes will not meet his own, the flushed petulant mouth is drawn down into a slight curve.

"They said it might take a couple of days to wear off," he says, turning back to the pot again.

"Is that _all_ they said?"

_//… //_

Naruto blinks. Fingertips halt mid-stretch for the wooden ladle.

It's the first time Sasuke's spoken to him for six years.

_//Six years… six goddamned years….//_

And this is really the first time they've been in the same room together, with both of them conscious, coherent and able to partake in the conversation. Those times… those dreadful times in the hospital don't count. Not the ones where Sasuke had been lying strapped down to the bed, oxygen mask fastened to a face so pumped full of painkillers and tranquillizers that he had probably not known what his own name was… let alone Naruto's.

For some reason, Naruto feels like crying and has to wrestle down a lump, which forms fast and spontaneously in his throat. He blinks furiously, teeth grating and bruising against the soft flesh of his lower lip.

It's not so much the cold voice, riddled with anger: he was used to that. It was that the voice has changed so much that gets to him. It's lower. Richer, somehow, like cold creamy coffee mixed with strong alcohol: so that it burns, searing hard and fast down your oesophagus.

_// Don't think about that now… now is not the time. //_

He lets his fingers fumble for a moment in midair, hand curling over nothing. He briefly brings it over his heart before leaning forward again to begin dishing out the ramen. He uses that easy false smile he's learnt as he turns round again, pushing chopsticks and a steaming bowl of noodles towards Sasuke, and takes the seat opposite, careful to draw the chair far out from under the table.

Sasuke looks at the bowl but doesn't touch it.

_// Where- no- When, the hell did he learn to cook//_

He looks expectantly at Naruto: he's not going to do anything until he gets what he wants.

_// Absolutely bloody typical of him. //_

Naruto runs the tip of his flexible tongue over his teeth, slouching slightly in the chair and rocking backwards. The leg makes a squeaking noise against the floor tiles as it does so. Sasuke's lip curls slightly at the sound in what Naruto assumes is annoyance.

_// Well, it's _his_ bloody house: he'll do exactly what he wants with_ his_ furniture.//_

"Well, yeah but, you already know the rest don't you? So there's no point in me repeating it to you like a parrot when you know exactly what I am going to say."

Sasuke glares at him; his face is utterly deadpan. His features seem to become a mask of irritation and heady dislike; it's only the glittering of his dark smoky eyes that reminds Naruto that he is in fact a living and breathing being.

The blonde youth finds himself exhaling impatiently through tensed nostrils.

"God," he mutters, "you are just so… **_obstinate_**… do you know that? I think I liked you better when you were upstairs sleeping."

_// Sticky substance that you are, got stuck in my hair and fingertips… and somehow in my mouth.//_

Sasuke doesn't reply. He doesn't have to. His face screams his unrelenting will power: 'Don't like it? Then get in line to _bite me_,' it says.

Growling in his throat Naruto clicks his jaw, one hand raking through his messy tangled stands of hair, ruffling them forwards and backwards, giving him that distinctly bedridden look.

For some reason the sudden slight change in appearance strikes Sasuke like a physical blow. He realizes for the first time that Naruto is older. And along with that comes the sexual awareness. His eyes skim across the stubborn jaw line that's flexing as his mouth pouts slightly, those blue eyes half lidded for a moment in thought before they open wider. For a brief second, Sasuke finds himself wondering how often he looks like that, and… who makes him look like that.

"They told me… well, they told me a lot of things I don't understand, because a lot of it didn't make sense. But they told me that they couldn't do anything further for you… and that there were these." He pointed here to both of his wrists, and then to the centre of his chest: "And- and that they tried to remove them… but it… it nearly killed you… and that was when you wouldn't stop screaming…." His voice trailed off, because he couldn't keep eye contact any longer, and his gaze fell to the table top as he contemplated the painful churning of his stomach that seemed to be turning cartwheels and somersaults at the memory alone.

There is a silence, and slowly Sasuke reaches out across the table - determinedly not looking at Naruto as he does it - and takes the bowl of ramen, and breaks the chopsticks apart, and tentatively takes a bite.

By the small fact that he doesn't expel the contents right back out of his mouth again like projectile vomit, Naruto takes it as a compliment that his food is in Sasuke's opinion at least adequate.

It's a thank you… of sorts.

Naruto takes it as encouragement to keep talking. "Sakura likes it when I make that for her too, and she's always careful about how much ramen she eats because she goes on and on about how it's going to make her fat, or something ridiculous like that. I remember I made it the first time at her apartment on her new cooker."

He laughed here easily for the first time, closing his eyes, a secret dimple revealing itself in his left cheek.

"It was so awful she threw contents of the bowl at me and accused me of trying to poison her. But don't worry: I've sorted it out now. I made that today only because Kiba wanted it, well that and to shut him up because he wouldn't stop yapping on about you."

Sasuke let himself look up at Naruto as he spoke, glad to see that he wasn't looking at him as he prattled on and on about nothing. He wasn't really listening to the words, part of him was basking in the feeling the warm words were giving him. Part of him was puzzled, part of him didn't understand why. With all the reasoning in the world it was only the logical conclusion that this should not be happening. It simply did not make sense to be this open with a person who had, well… proven themselves to be beneath deserving this attention from anyone. Even less the person he had screwed over and left as good as dead all those years ago.

But then the words caught, and Sasuke stopped eating, the feeling suddenly becoming bitter, then hot, and then livid.

"I mean, I understand why they'd think that," Naruto was saying, looking at the fruit bowl and rearranging the apples, "but like I said, you really aren't that much of a threat if you can't use chakra. It would be a bit like trying to beat a piñata with a deflated balloon: it's just silly! I mean I doubt you could take out a twelve year old in this condition, which is a laugh really seeing as you left of some ridiculous mission to get stronger anyway, and imagine, you end up back here again weaker then you were before. I guess it's what Kiba calls 'bad karma' full circle right?"

He stops a word half formed on his tongue because he suddenly catches Sasuke's expression. The violent explosion inside those dark, intoxicating inky eyes wash over him like a thunderstorm. The look jars in his mind, and he feel like the hunted facing the predator again, and fear roots him to the spot. His hands clench the rim of the chair very tightly and his heart beats frantically in his chest as Sasuke stands up, in a violent and swift movement. How is he so tall? He towers over Naruto, as he picks up the ramen bowl… and hurtles it at him.

Naruto has barely enough time cover his face with his arms and hands before the hot soup and noodles burn into his skin and soak into his clothes. His body seems to drip adrenaline and his insides feel slightly lucid, as he lowers his arms from his face a fraction, only to see Sasuke glaring down at him with such hostile intent that Naruto has no doubt that Sasuke would kill him then and there.

Slowly, too sinisterly to be elegant but smoothly, Sasuke leans so his face is close to Naruto's, those arching quixotic eyes seem to burn into his skull seeing right through to the other side.

Naruto can feel the tickling hot rivulets of Sasuke's breath colliding with the soft skin of his temple and forehead.

For a brief second as Naruto looks up, he finds himself thinking how beautiful Sasuke looks when he's angry: he's always thought so. Skin like molten marble radiates rage that's reflected in pitiless eyes, eyes he could never quite decide the colour of. They're so much more angular than his; thick lashes like the dark wings of a raven, feathered and branched. The expression is like that of a wild animal… like a panther, rippling muscles flexing, ready to leap and strike with all the precision and merciless violence of something hungry for carnage.

Sasuke's lip draws back in a savage snarl as he hisses down at Naruto, who reacts as if he's been struck. The words echo around the walls.

"**_Fuck off_**."

Naruto feels the clang of the door in his ribcage as Sasuke slams to door behind him and listens for the ascent of footsteps. It's a full two minutes after Sasuke has gone, that Naruto's body relaxes out of it's tensed position.

Slowly, mind a bit numb to what has just happened, he lowers his arms which have been hovering around his chest. The sockets in his shoulders _ache_.

Absently he picks a noodle from his hair, and the bridge of his nose, looking down at the floor at the broken blue china that lies scattered around the legs of the table and chair.

Sakura had done this too, Naruto admits to himself. "But at least," he says out loud no nobody in particular - there where a good deal of kitchen utensils that could be listening - "at least she said '_sorry_'."

* * *

It's a two-floor apartment, with only six rooms and that's including the entrance hallway. So really it shouldn't be that easy to avoid someone inside the walls of it! Quite the opposite in fact, at least, Naruto imagines so.

He is of course wrong.

Sasuke Uchiha is more stubborn than he had initially given him credit for: since the disaster with the ramen he's taken to _'his_' bedroom, and not stepped a foot outside it.

They haven't spoken, haven't walked past each other - hell they haven't even made eye contact since! Not for want of trying though. Naruto has stood outside the door, calling in, (because he knows Sasuke's in there: he can't really go anywhere else at present.) He wants to say he's sorry but the arrogant prick won't answer him. Yesterday he shouted himself hoarse, although why he was shouting he's unsure: he knows that Sasuke can hear like a bat. Standing with hands on hips in the hallway, tapping his feet irritably and asking Sasuke if he could come in (into his _own_ bedroom in _his_ house!) to apologize. Although why he's apologizing is beyond him.

No reply, no Nasty Sarcastic Demeaning Comment, no nothing.

Until eventually he slammed out of his apartment in a burning rage, and walked around the outside of the building, glaring at Sasuke's window, slightly open, curtain fluttering in a gentle breeze.

//_Oh yes he would…//_

Fuming, and ignoring the bemused looks from passers-by, he climbed up the wall. If that was necessary for them to start talking again, he would just have prize the window open, jump into the room and beat the crap out of Sasuke.

What had actually happened was that Sasuke waited until Naruto's finger tips were clinging onto the sill for support… before slamming the window shut on them.

The _screaming _could be heard on the other side of Konoha.

Naruto spent the rest of the day with his hands in a bowl of ice water, each finger supported by an individual splint just so he wouldn't keep knocking them on everything and anything, being fussed over by a worried Hinata. Much to Kiba's displeasure. But Kiba was fuming anyway, having been denied his request to go "Rip-Sasuke's-Head-from-his-Shoulders-It-Will-ONLY-TAKE-A-MINUTE."

In truth Naruto believed Shikamaru was inclined to this idea as well, although he seemed disapproving: he had been aiming fearsomely dark looks at the ceiling whenever he thought the blond wasn't looking.

It had been a long day.

That evening Naruto had sat in the kitchen alone after the others had gone back, his eyes fixed on the clock. The minutes ticked and the hands chimed the hour, but Sasuke didn't come down for food. Snarling to himself about _Stubborn Jackasses, _Naruto had irritably slammed his food onto a tray, (rice balls this time,) swearing creatively all the way up the stairs. He kicked on Sasuke's door, once, twice, three times.

He yelled, "Your **_stupid_**food is outside your **_stupid_** door!" and slammed off into his own bedroom to fume not-so-quietly about his housemate.

He had been lying on his bed reading a comic when he had heard Sasuke's bedroom door open - a fraction at first, then slightly more, before it swung open and someone stepped lightly into the hallway.

Naruto didn't need to strain his ears for the sounds as the fox gave him better hearing than most. His fingers paused in turning the page of his comic. He was tempted, sorely tempted to rip open his own door and go charging down the corridor and call Sasuke several… immature names. But he shouldn't, and he resisted the urge, however powerful it may have been.

The door clicked shut again and Naruto let out a long exhale, unaware that he had been holding his breath. He rolled off the bed, landing expertly on his feet and tossing his comic somewhere on the floor.

He found himself sitting by the side of the bed, head propped back against the side of the mattress, humming absently.

There's a picture in a frame propped up on the windowsill, light stippling across it from underneath the blinds.

They took it on his eighteenth, which would explain why it's slightly lopsided, having being set up on self-timer with a not-so-sober Kiba. Strictly speaking, it had been a hula-hula-dancing Kiba with sake still dripping from his hair.

Naruto finds himself staring at it for a moment. He recalls clearly how Sakura had dragged him back to her apartment after he was no longer in a fit state to walk, and he had fallen asleep like some deformed tree trunk across her hallway.

//_Sakura…_//

He still feels a little numb when he thinks about her. It's been a little over three weeks, and he's been finding it hard to sleep recently. Although that might be for a number of reasons as Shikamaru aptly keeps pointing out: "such as stress, anxiety, or simply (and his favourite one) stupidity."

Kiba suggests, a little more -or less- helpfully, Naruto doesn't quite know, that he is of course sexually frustrated.

He does miss Sakura. He's known her since he was twelve, and it's weird to not get up in the mornings to run out the door and find her waiting a few streets away. And it's weird to not then be bashed over the head for either being late or looking like he's just rolled out of bed. (…Technically he has. But she doesn't need to know about the little details now does she?)

He likes is best when he can turn over in the middle of the night to find her sleeping, forehead pressed against the turn of his shoulder, thumb close to her mouth. He's caught her sucking it a few times although she never admits it. (But it's so cute!) Oddly enough thinking about it now, he even misses it when she kicks him out of bed with her foot on his ass (which hurts like hell!) and then tells him to make her breakfast with an impish grin on her face, as she rolls snugly underneath the covers again. And he, Naruto, is left lying naked on the floor like some weirdly deformed clam, shell-shocked, with his legs up over his head.

What Naruto likes about being with Sakura is that he's completely comfortable around her. With Sakura there's never the feeling that the world might collapse in on itself tomorrow; no pretending he's like someone else. With Sakura he never has the feeling that he's alone.

He's never… it's not a… passionate relationship. Yes, he was and still is sexually attracted to her, she's Sakura, she's beautiful.

He's always known that.

They weren't always so close. He thinks she despised him at one point, prior to Sasuke leaving. But then a lot of things were different before Sasuke left.

A lot of things have changed.

Naruto lets himself slip further down onto the floor.

Things are confusing now. There's an uncomfortable hole of guilt in the pit of his stomach because he's made his ever-so-pissy-and-ever-so-sensitive-housemate… well, pissed off.

//_And that's putting it, well, somewhat bluntly. _//

He really shouldn't be worried about it. When they were kids and he and Sasuke would blow up at each other about once a week, often more, Kakashi-sensei would just look at them nonchalantly whilst they tried to punch each other's brains out and turn a page of his book. Until things got bloody that is. Then he was legally required to step in. Not because he was a responsible adult or anything conscientious like that.

Naruto finds himself grinning at that distant memory… in his minds eye he can see himself and Sasuke yelling at each other from opposite ends of the room until they were both hoarse:

"_I hate you!"_

"_Well… I hate you more!"_

"_Oh please, you couldn't think of a creative insult if it came up when you were naked and bit you on the ass!"_

"_Shut up!"_

"_See? You only prove my point every time you open your stupid mouth… stupid!"_

Naruto laughs, drawing his knee's up to his chest and resting his chin snugly on his caps. He knew how to deal with _that_ Sasuke. Try to knock him for six, end up on his back, blood in his mouth and staring up into gloating inky grey eyes… 'til one of them gave in and began to laugh.

He doesn't **know **how to deal with this version of Sasuke. It's like he's jumped the stream and landed in the ocean chugging down salt water (which he's only ever done _once _before and it's friggin' unpleasant) …way out of his depth.

Now he is older and no longer boyish. If there was ever an innocence about Sasuke Uchiha he's lost it, or at least Naruto thinks so: there's no hint of a smile about his beautiful mouth and his eyes are cold and as unyielding as a stone statue. He might as well be made out of wood from the way Naruto can read him, and about as bendable as a china stick that's been rammed up into the wee crevasses of his ass.

How are you supposed to connect with someone who gives you as much leeway as a pebble?

It's not that he's giving up. It'll take far more then this to push Naruto Uzumaki away, believe it! But it's more the fact that no matter how he looks at it, he just can't see a way around it. When Sasuke was in the hospital, at least then all Naruto could do was hope that things would get better, that when he was properly conscious they could at least, you know, talk.

But they can't, won't… haven't.

"Vocal obstruction," Naruto mutters to himself frowning. It's a word that was thrown at him a week before, along with an x-ray scan that he didn't really understand: "Vocal obstruction and memory location." But that's as far as he can remember, as the rest is lost in a blur of coffee, messy hair, stubble and very, _very _bossy friends.

He sighs, wondering vaguely what Sakura would do in his position. It's rather depressing to think that everything would probably be a lot easier. For example she would have known not to natter on about inconsequential obscenities, and he doubts very much that Sasuke would have blown up at her. He never blew up at Sakura, because he probably had a soft spot for her or something disgusting like that.

Naruto finds himself frowning darkly at the idea of this, a quick spike of something flaring in his stomach that he supposes to be anger. Sasuke _never _picked on Sakura the way he did on Naruto, never _ever_, despite the fact that in their youth she used to hassle him much more then he did.

//_Jerk. _//

He lets himself slip down even lower, so he's practically lying on his back, forced to stare up at the slats of his bedstead.

He really should write to Sakura… she'll be pissed otherwise, and he did promise. Even if she'll probably write back along the lines of _"Naruto, your handwriting is akin to that of a drunken penguin, in the dark with the vocabulary of a pre-schooler. I can't understand a single line of it! And even if I could, I must tell you again that it was far too short!"_

If he writes her a very long letter she'll take great joy of picking everything out that's wrong with it and drumming it into his head that he should separate out his sentences with a comma ("because comma's are you friends!") and something very tedious about grammar…. And then inserted subtly at the end, something about the cute ninja who asked her out the other day. You know. Just for fun.

For some reason thinking about this now, Naruto doesn't think he can tell Sakura about Sasuke. It would just be too complicated. She'd probably, most likely, come charging back from wherever the hell she is, despite the fact she made such an enormous fuss about going in the first place. She'd kick his ass, then Shikamaru's ass, then Kiba's ass... and then she'd turn on Sasuke and… and….

Naruto doesn't like to think about it really. She'd probably tell him he "only did this because she was away," …which might in a sense be true, but Naruto won't admit it to himself. He's not going to admit that to _anyone_ how afraid he is of ending up alone again, least of all to Sasuke.

//_This really, truly does suck. _//

He lets himself doze for a moment, thinking about nothing in particular.

It's pleasantly warm on his bedroom floor and he can hear the pipes for the central heating whistling away downstairs in the airing cupboard, and for a while it seems like his apartment is singing to him.

He smiles for no reason: a curious, disarming expression that makes him simultaneously older as it does younger.

Then he hears the door across the hallway open, very quietly as if the person opening it doesn't want the noise to be heard, and Naruto sits up abruptly.

A little too abruptly, because the top of his head collides with the wooden slatted bedstead and brilliant flashes of white stars go sporadic before his eyes as he yelps.

Ignoring the prominent throbbing, he jumps up and crosses the room, yanking the door open and sticking his head cautiously out of the door. The only thing that has changed since he last checked is the fact that the tray is now empty.

Naruto feels the first hot sparks of anger fizzling through his chest. He doesn't know why he's so irritated, he just is. He really, _really,_ **really **is.

Maybe it's just the audacity of someone who's staying in his house when he doesn't have to, out of his own courtesy, and is just being so goddamned **rude** about it. Maybe it's the fact he's eaten the food and not said thank you.

And maybe, most likely of all, is the fact that it's Sasuke doing all of this to him.

//_Got it coming doesn't he? _//

//_HELL YES._ //

Naruto storms out the room, barely containing himself; he feels like he's going to explode all over the place, in one huge messy _splodge,_ everywhere. He wants desperately to vent, and suddenly it seems a wonderful idea to implant his fist through the wall. Except that would be stupid because Sakura's not here to yell at him to clean it up and then magically fix it herself.

He slams his foot against Sasuke's door, not caring if the neighbours hear; god the whole goddamned _village_ can hear it for all he cares at this particular moment!

Naruto opens his mouth as his foot connects with the wood, preparing his throat for more yelling, when the door shudders and flies open. It crashes ear splittingly into the opposite wall. The brass handle connects with the plaster at high-speed and the two mesh together. It causes a gaping indent in the paintwork.

//_Whoops. _//

Naruto freezes, hands still stuck adamantly in pockets, eyeing up the wall and feeling suddenly guilty. He didn't intend for that to have happened. He had thought the door to be still locked, like it was all of yesterday and this morning! He feel's rather cheated.

A little on edge and somewhat startled, he steps into the room.

His first thought is that it isn't as dark as it was before. The curtains are drawn but the blinds are pulled all the way up. It also strikes him that the room is obscenely tidy, unnaturally so in fact: all the surfaces are empty, the draws of the dresser firmly closed and the wardrobe shut. The mirror too, sits at an exact angle, reflecting the opposite wall.

Naruto gulps. He had tidied, or rather Hinata had tidied the room for him, when he'd originally proposed that Sasuke should stay with him. But she hadn't put everything away. There had been a print on the wall that Iruka had given him for his seventeenth birthday of a mountain landscape, (along with some appreciated ramen vouchers,) but it looks like it's been ripped from the wall. Several things like that strike Naruto as he looks about him. There was a bowl on the dresser full of interestingly shaped pinecones that he, Hinata, Kiba and Sakura had all found one day when out on a mission together. The bowl and the pinecones seem to have disappeared somewhere.

Naruto opens his mouth to ask why when he finds himself searching for Sasuke: Sasuke whom he'd imagined standing in front of him looking angry, hissing venom and ready to kick him the hell out again.

But instead he finds Sasuke lying on the bed, in a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, looking up at the ceiling as if he hasn't noticed that Naruto has entered at all.

All of a sudden, Naruto can't decide whether the emotion sprawling through his gut is anger or fear.

//…_Shit. What the hell do I do?_ //

He licks his lips and chances it. It's the only tactic he knows; he might as well try it.

"**Why** are you such an pig-headed asshole?"

There. No preamble, no pretend niceties, no looking headways or sideways before he plunges straight in.

Sasuke's head moves a fraction. Not enough to see him, but movement at least is a slight acknowledgment. He's still however staring at the ceiling, hair in rumpled thick strands around his face, as if he's been running his fingers through it over and over again.

Naruto notices the bandages around his wrists are no longer present, and he frowns. The skin is red and irritated as if he's been scratching at those _Things,_ and sharp little stabs of panic claw at his insides.

"Hey," he continues, and this time he advances again, wooden floorboards creaking slightly under his feet. "I'm talking to you."

//_Wait. Wasn't he supposed to be apologizing? _//

Smokey grey eyes find his, cold and flat, and the mouth moves, working to an expressionless face. "Are you now?"

Sasuke doesn't move from the bed, in fact his body doesn't move at all, not in the slightest. His long legs are tilted slightly at an odd angle, as if the heels and ankles are too painful to put weight on.

Naruto finds himself biting his lower lip. He feel anxious for a reason he's not too sure of, but it feels dangerous, like he's wading waist deep through quick sand that could drag him under at any second to suck him down into dark inescapable depths.

He swallows his pride, or what's left of it anyway.

"I wanted to, you know… about the other day."

Sasuke's gaze doesn't flicker, and Naruto has this horrible feeling that he can see right out and through the back of his head. Gaara once looked at him in that way, and the consequences weren't at all pretty.

The words loose themselves on the tip of his tongue as he begins to form them, skidding into nothingness; and he backtracks and fumbles, changing the subject.

Why does Sasuke have this uncanny ability to always make him feel so goddamned clumsy? Like a proverbially obese hump-backed whale, in a china shop.

"What are you doing?"

For some reason he's rewarded with a snarl and Sasuke turns his head so he's once again staring at the ceiling, ignoring Naruto.

But Naruto won't be pushed off so easily. He pulls out the chair from beside the wardrobe, spins it backwards and then sits on it, arms folded over the back.

Sasuke doesn't even look at him as in quiet dangerous soft tones he warns Naruto to "Get the hell out of his sight."

Naruto squares his shoulders and tells Sasuke to "Stuff that, because it's his apartment, and this is technically his bedroom anyway."

"Fine, I'll leave then."

And he makes to get up, even though it looks like it costs him some effort to do so, but he hides it well. It's only by the unhealthy paleness of his skin that Naruto can tell this: fairer then ivory and twice as cold.

"You can't leave," Naruto tells him simply. "There are boundaries outside the windows, the doors, the whole building… you can't cross them because you know… you can't use chakra."

For an instant Sasuke looks at him, and his eyes flash suddenly with an intense… something, before everything goes still again and there's only the dull throbbing of his heart inside his chest as the valves open and close to the same monotonous rhythm.

Then that cold condescending smile forms all the way across the beautiful flush of Sasuke's lips, and his eyes narrow as he laughs. The tones chill Naruto as he sits, maintaining his cool, but it's costing him effort.

"So this is it, is it?"

Naruto frowns at Sasuke, genuinely not really understanding the question.

"So what is what?"

Sasuke sits on the edge of the bed, feet touching the floor, and again Naruto marvels at how pale he is. Like torn ivory, he seems to bleed away into the black he wears slung loosely over his physique, as contrasting as blood against snow.

He leans forwards a fraction from the hips, those eyes with thick feathery lashes seeming to extract Naruto's soul and examine it at his leisure.

"You and me. What is this? Some sort of game?"

"Game? You think this is a _game_? What are you, sick or something?"

"Maybe, but I'm wondering why you brought me here in the first place. Why with you? Surely you should have learnt after last time Naruto, you can't change people. You can't stop them from becoming what they are."

"And I suppose you think you're a living example of this do you? Just because you gave up Sasuke, that _doesn't_ mean everybody does, just because you were w-"

Naruto bites his tongue. He was about to say because you were weak, but that would have gone down as successfully as a ton of bricks. Yet he thinks… no, he knows Sasuke can second guess his movements as well as predict them, he was always oh, so very good at that.

Sasuke raises his thumb to his mouth. He bites the tip of the nail, mouth forming something that Naruto wouldn't, can't call a smile, because it's far too ominous. It's almost debasing but for some reason he can't tear his eyes away from it. Like a spiral, he's falling straight down.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Sasuke says, and the words are phrased softly like the calm before the storm; and Naruto's cursing his short explosive temper. Sasuke's drawing his own rage out with a frightening amount of patience, like a spider spinning silken threads to make a deadly web. Sasuke is angry, and he can see it in every line of his body.

"You sitting here, judg-"

"I'm not judging you Sasuke." Naruto interrupts him quickly, he doesn't want this to turn into an argument, but it's hard to defend against it when his own temperature seems to be soaring and the Uchiha is attacking him from every side and every possible angle with lethal accuracy.

"Then what is this? Pity? Because if it is, Naruto, I'll tell you what you can do with it."

"Why," Naruto asks, standing up now, skin flushed, "must you turn everything into an argument, or a threat, or something equally horrible? Why must you look at everything like that? You can see that I don't want to do it, I don't want to go there!"

//_Maybe he enjoys seeing me trapped._ //

"Because that's how everything is." His eyes are perfectly indifferent when he says it. He believes the words - Naruto can tell he's not lying, he's not even goading him. This is how in his mind, in his world, things work.

"There's no such thing as happiness. People get what they want from the suffering of others, happiness is a very selfish thing," he scoffs. "You know that Naruto, better than most I should imagine. People blame and ignore what they don't want to see, because it makes them feel better."

"No they… well they don't anymore. It's different… it's changed." The words are spoken in defence, heatedly; teeth gritted and jaw clenched.

"Really?" and it's laced with a lazy sarcasm. "Do they now? Do all of them think differently? Do none of them hold it against you Naruto? All of this, this **silly** pretence of friendship and independence… this… this place?" and he jerks his head to the side indicating the apartment.

"It's all changed has it? For the better? And what about Sakura? She hasn't been round has she? What's the matter Naruto, afraid to tell your girlfriend the truth, that you let the traitor back into your life again? Or afraid that I'll tell her the truth about you?"

"How do you know…how do you know about me and Sakura?" Naruto asks, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth and he's unaware of the fact that his hands are clenched, knuckles white and shaking.

"Your friend has a very loud mouth."

//_I knew it, he does hear like a bat! _//

"Or are you," and this bit is accentuated nastily, "afraid that if she sees me, she'll forget all about you? She always did have a thing for me now that I think about it. A stupid school girl's crush."

"Shut up." Naruto's so angry he can hardly see straight. He has to blink back bubbles of white-hot rage that seem to be popping and colliding inside his mind.

_// You never realized how lucky you were to be so easily accepted… so easily loved… and you never tired. You never tired, not even once. //_

"So tell me…" He lets the words fall and rise on the heavy silence between them, words sizzling between them like millions of tiny needles.

Sasuke pushes them in deeper, because he can, because he's angry at himself and all the world, but mostly at Naruto for being so blind and thinking after all this time that he can still change things. That at the end of the tunnel there is still light.

"What's it like fucking her then?"

Naruto goes pink and then goes white with rage which is infinitely more dangerous. "Shut up," he manages, but it's hardly above a whisper, so great is his concentration to not launch himself at Sasuke and drive him head first through the wall.

"You **wouldn't**- you'd never **know**, you _never ever _loved anyone besides yourself, you've never had-have any friends. You have **_no right _**to ask me that- or see her… ever. And why anyone would want to see you is beyond me."

//_Seems he's getting the point, finally._//

"And so," and Sasuke's still smiling that haunting smile, like death in flesh and supple fingers, "she swapped the traitor for the monster did she?"

// _I pity the fool who brought me back._//

The silence is so heavy it crashes over both of their heads.

//_Monster…._//

Naruto stands there for a moment, swallowing what he feels is his tongue, before he turns blinking out of the room, feeling light headed. He stands in the corridor, hand on the wall, heart pumping frantically in his chest as he waits for the world to come back into cohesion again.

The door swings shut by itself and Sasuke finds himself slipping down onto the floor where he puts his head between his legs, and tries to swallow down the bile that his stomach is threatening to hurtle up through his oesophagus.

Desperately, with every fibre of his being he wants to go after Naruto: he wants to tell him that he was lying, that he didn't- never meant it…. That he'd never considered him a monster and neither, to his knowledge had Sakura. But he can't, he knows he can't, reason pulls him down and forces him to sink, and he gulps down a human impulse to suddenly start crying.

If Naruto never speaks to him again it will make everything much easier.

If Naruto never looks at him again it will be much better.

And it would be much simpler if he didn't miss it already, or hate himself for doing it.

Much, much easier.

†

†

* * *

_Naruto wrestles stubbornly but it's no good._

_Sasuke pushes him down and under him, back forced roughly against the hard solid stone beneath them. He's smiling down at him, strands of hair trickling around his face, framing the slender shape._

"_Got you," he murmurs quietly, mouth close to Naruto's ear, and it sends shivers up his spine._

_Naruto doesn't know how the game started but he knows how it ends: already Sasuke is making his way down from his neck to his collar bones, a hot searing trail that causes his breath catch jerkily in his throat._

_For some reason, he rolls. He moves his body up and over, so that he's lying on top; long legs and hips pressing into his abdomen as he brandishes his own fox like smile. The whisker-like scars in his cheeks are dark and deep in the dim light._

"_You suppose too much," Naruto hoarsely replies, cornflower blue eyes half closed. His heart is racing and he's exhilarated; he can't remember when he felt this perfect. **This** goddamned… good._

_Sasuke's fingers, pale, elegant and long, ghost across his chest. A possessive, engulfing gaze is locking onto every atom in his body, and Naruto's breath hitches again. His body prickles in anticipation as Sasuke pulls him forwards, tongue and teeth clicking and colliding together. Hot wet mouths: pushing and feeling, tasting, being tasted, fighting and surrendering, merging, connecting. The tip of Sasuke's tongue strokes the insides of Naruto's mouth, which lets out a gentle moan into the kiss. _

_He **can't** care about anything anymore as a hand, fingertips cold, brushes as close as a whisper across the smooth skin of his back, gliding up underneath his t-shirt._

_Sasuke leans back from the kiss and Naruto finds himself groaning at the loss, turning his face into Sasuke's jaw, taking in the smell, slightly sweet, slightly sharp, like citrus. His fingers curl around the lean arms in front of him and he finds himself rolled over, being pushed under again, someone coaxing him to spread his legs._

_Except he doesn't. And the warm feeling he's chasing after seems to flicker and fade, and he wants to sit up, wants to stop, because he suddenly realizes how ridiculous this is. He'll end up being hurt again, lost and pushed aside._

_He pushes against Sasuke's chest, and lifting his face finds vibrant grey eyes, slivered like a mirror and twice as smooth, looking down reflectively into his own. It's the look that reads him, reminds him, controls him; thrusts him down harder, faster, over and over again._

_He's trapped._

"_No." he says and he's surprised at how normal his voice sounds on the thick tepid air. He watches the flushed mouth above him, red and parted from all the kisses. It draws back slightly and he can see the tip of canines sparkling and white inside of the gloom._

"_No?" and the word is pushed back at him like a question. Sasuke leans in lower, powerful muscular shoulders like a great cat's, covering him. Warm hands are moving over his own where they push against Sasuke's chest, no longer firm, almost limp, feeling the heat of naked skin against hard fingertips. _

_His arms are thrust up and over his head, making him gasp, pinning their bodies together. Flat on his back, wide eyes looking up, damn straight up, into orbs that hovers inches above his own._

_Naruto swallows his heartbeat._

_Sasuke's eyes seem to laugh into his own, an unfathomable laugh, teasing and dangerous. _

_One hand slips down to Naruto's abdomen, delicately touching sensitive skin that shudders; and Naruto follows, hips lifting slightly as Sasuke toys. The neck of the blond flexes back into the firm ground beneath him. His eyes roll back as the hands ghost lower… and lower… cold fingertips burning his flesh._

_Sasuke places his mouth against the hollow behind Naruto's ear, hot breath like a steaming breeze, voice silky and deeply melodious, as he tells Naruto that he wants it… he **wants it**. _

_It's Naruto's realization. The realization is that exactly. He does want, and he wants all of it. He wants Sasuke right now with an addictive craving that seems to grip and scrape at the hot seething of his insides; inside his chest, inside his stomach…. Everything's so strange, he doesn't know anything but he feels it. He feels it when his body arches into Sasuke, hard, muscular, graceful and beautiful and yet masculine. Common sense goes sprawling to place that doesn't exist, and everything is dark red and blurred. He can't think straight with those hands on him, devious and doing things he never thought to be possible; and it feels so…. Very. Good… Sinfully so._

_And then, as he turns his mouth, seeing clearly for the first time as Sasuke traces the line of it with his tongue, he sees exactly how it is, and what he wants. And more to the point what he **doesn't** want._

_He looks up, hair sticking sweaty across his forehead, tanned skin flushed and blood pumping so fast inside his veins. "I want you," he murmurs, and the words cost him no effort and no reflection. He watches as Sasuke's mouth moves into a line of something not unlike triumph, followed by carnal pleasure._

_Fingers move up into Naruto's hair, releasing his wrists, which fall limply to his sides to feel the ground beneath him as it seems to move._

_Naruto opens his mouth, eyes closed as butterfly kisses trail over his temple and forehead. His tongue darts out and wets his lips, and he inhales deeply, taking in the smell, musky, sharp and sweet all at once._

"_Sasuke," he breathes, before he looses his mind, before the world goes out of focus into a multicoloured haze:_

"_I want you, but I don't need you."_

_There is a pause… a stinging silence, and then the fingers in his hair become painful, applying pressure as his head as it is wrenched upwards, so he's staring into the eyes of a predator, dark, deadly and enamouring._

_Neither smoky grey or inky black._

_Fear itches across his body as Sasuke withdraws a hand and hits him._

* * *

At two o'clock in the morning Naruto sits up in bed abruptly, body covered in a cold film of sweat with his heart jumping erratically in his chest. He can still feel Sasuke's body against his own, his hands, his limbs, his touch, and he shivers from the base of his spine. He stumbles blindly out of bed in the darkness, hands fumbling for the bathroom door, which he opens and closes noisily behind him again.

He going to take long cold shower… and maybe drown himself in it.

* * *

A/N I am apparently getting better with my limey lemon...you never know I might actually go into detail with it at some later (soon) point.

Chapter is once again nameless...so if any body would like to suggest one it would be wonderfully loved. And for me it's huge, and has a glaring gigantic middle section, and haha yes, Sasuke IS written like a PMSing woman...I can't help that he just spews out in that way...the splints and hula hula dancing Kiba are due to my Editor-sama's rerun on the whole thing. 20 pages of it, wow girl you rock!

I'm curious to know if you think that the SasuNaru relationship is credible in this, you've had your first whole chapter of it, I'd love to get feedback on your opinion, because I'd like to know how to improve it!


	5. Twisting Lines

Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Naruto, I'd have Itachi start off his own band of L'oreal hair care products...because you know, super villains with long luscious locks are worth it too!

A/N Before you leap in to this overly long chapter I'd like to say a few things to my reviewers. You guys are absolutely awesome, I feel so spoilt every time you review Fish Bird, because you're all so great! I can't express how much I've gone Squee! everytime I read one of your reviews, I've NEVER had such nice reviews in my whole histroy of being a fanfiction writer (and believe me I've had a couple of years on that!). I can only hope I don't shrivel up and wilt at your expectations (I'll dig myself into a hole and never come out of it) I really love reading them and all comments and cricisms are taken heartily on board. To those who query my Shikamaru all I can say is that this is my idea of him, he's lazy yes, but he's also a really great friend who'll do just about anything if he has to. The NarutoxSakura relationship for the whole plot of Fish Bird relies heavily on their past (and future cough cough) relationship, (I also quite like that pairing now). I really hope you'll read this through to the eventual end and enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. To all my reviewers and all my readers, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Chapter 5: Twisting Lines

* * *

Naruto trudged heavily down the stairs, yawning. He's in a bad mood this morning, hair in delightful disarray as he slams against the hallway wall, shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. He grunts, scowling heatedly, and then jumps down the last few steps.

He had no sleep after that… none at all. After the… _dream _if that's what you would call it.

_//More like a Nightmare // _

Naruto thinks, stretching long limber arms over his head, fingers curling into streams of morning sunlight. The funny thing is that he can still feel parts of it- the indents on his skin from Sasuke's fingertips, and his lips feel slightly tender this morning, rubbed raw and bitten.

But he knows, flushing, that this is entirely impossible. It's his imagination being more then slightly overactive. And yet it's nagging away at the back of his mind, and he stops before he opens the door, and peers into the hanging mirror to check there isn't a black mark around his eye from where Sasuke recoiled his fist and struck him.

But there's nothing.

Wide cornflower blue eyes peer anxiously back at him, blinking lashes and knowing full well he's staring his own ignorant innocence right in the face. He lets out a long sigh, and his stomach recoils somewhat as relief floods through him in a tide. It's beyond absurd to think that Sasuke would actually… it's not… what he means is… _he's so asexual!_

He finds himself looking worriedly over his shoulder, as if by thinking these thoughts the Uchiha can hear him. But he shakes it off, frowning:

_// Something's are just ridiculous, he **can't** read your thoughts Naruto. // _

In a few minutes he finds himself shuffling blearily around his kitchen, hands following an automatic routine; and presently is seated, bowl of cereal and glass of milk nearby. He'd been trying to break the habit of eating ramen for breakfast (or every meal, solidly,) when he had started spending the nights over a Sakura's apartment. She had told him somewhat bluntly it is true, that if he continued to do it, she'd shove his chopsticks up certain unmentionable orifices, and that they'd never ever have sex again.

_// She could be pretty scary when she wanted to be… //_

He still sneaked a few every once in a while, hoping that she wouldn't find out (she always did, and sometimes he wondered if Sakura could honestly read minds.)

Naruto looks glumly at his food. He doesn't feel much like eating (not even ramen!) He doesn't feel like doing anything much really. His stomach is churning away like old dusty coals in a furnace, bringing old heat back up to the boil again.

He feels… what does he feel? It's a good question.

Angry, nervous, Insanely Infuriated?

Maybe, and perhaps foremost, disappointed.

Because he so badly wanted to avoid this.

Naruto rubs a closed fist over his eyes, and feel somewhat strained. There's no dignity in this, no dignity _at all_. But he won't- he _can't _forgive Sasuke for what he's done and said, it's beyond his morality to pretend it never happened. He's rammed the nail straight in and now the point is sticking out between his shoulder blades, jarring, bloody, sudden and painful every time he moves.

Unenthusiastically he swirls his spoon about the cereal bowl, watching the contents glob, reform and cluster. He looks at his glass of milk (yes glass, not carton, try not to faint) and he still feels listless, like limp salad left out in the sun to curl and brown about the edges. It's an admission of defeat as he pushes away from the table and takes the bowl over to the windowsill and pours the glass of milk into Virginia's plant pot. He murmurs a muted: "Good morning and how are you?" to her. She looks prickly today he thinks, spines almost quivering in the early morning light; Naruto supposes she must feel the tension and sighs heavily.

_// Stupid Jerk //_

_and then a smaller voice:_

_// He called me a monster…//_

Naruto braces his hands against the sides of the kitchen counter and looks down into the soap-suds of the basin. His distorted image frowns up at him. His whisker like scars seem to be etched deeper then ever into his skin, little linear discolorations, all jagged and wry.

What had he thought when he was younger? That these were the marks left by some savage beast? The thing that had left him and devoured his parents? Naruto finds himself laughing, although there's nothing remotely humorous to laugh at. It's the foxes outward claim on the vessel he is contained in, somewhere inside of him, in this universally close space of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues and organs that make up his body: an infinite chasm with impenetrable walls and hooked iron spikes exists, keeping this creature in.

Part of him hates it, part of him excepts it, and another piece just doesn't seem to care.

As long as he keeps it subdued and under control, no one will mind. As long as it doesn't get loose they won't be afraid of him. He used to have nightmares, a long, long time ago about what would happen if the fox got loose while he was sleeping, how it happened to Gaara. What if he woke up one morning amongst blood, rubble and chaos and it would all be his fault?

What if he had killed everybody in his sleep?

What if he found Sakura lying next to him, her neck broken in half because… because…

**_What if…?_**

Naruto shudders at the memory, runs his cold fingers over his hot eye sockets and finds himself exhaling loudly.

_// It's not going to happen, so don't worry about it. //_

He's come a long way since then- nothing is going to pop out unexpectedly. He finds himself pouring the dirty water down the drain, watching as the last swirls of liquid are sucked down into the dark mouth of the plug-hole.

Sasuke… Sasuke never really says anything unless each thought has been weighed, calculated and measured against a long list of possible outcomes, gains and losses. Very rarely does he ever act on impulse, Naruto thinks, taking a step back and glowering at the ceiling. Not ever. He's never had a moment of passion when half unguarded words come tumbling from his mouth, mingled with fear, simplicity and truth. Everything's evaluated, preordained and edited. It's like talking to some self-processed machine, utterly inhuman, inevitably frustrating and totally pointless.

It makes what he said worse, because if it was an act of senseless anger it would be much easier to forgive, but the fact is- the fact is simple: it is not a random slip of the tongue.

Naruto shakes his head, still scowling, and makes his way towards the door. He opens it, meaning to leave for work, the unappealing call of paperwork is looming ahead, and he can see that old hag grinning at him from behind piles and piles of things he's neglected to do.

He hasn't set out breakfast for Sasuke.

For a while he considers whether or not he should bother. Sasuke _is_ ill after all, even if he _is_ the world's biggest Pain In The Ass- a small sneaky smile trails up the side of Naruto's expressive mouth as he thinks about it.

_//Sure, why **not** give him breakfast//_

And he pulls open the cupboard and fetches out the cereal box, a china bowl, a spoon, the milk and then- his hand lingers for a moment over what _seems _to be white sugar bowl. But one can swear that his blue eyes are sparkling too merrily for this to be the entire truth. He carefully sprinkles a spoonful of it quite liberally all over the cornflakes, reasoning to himself that the Uchiha is probably too busy sulking anyway to eat this.

Probably.

_// Damned if I do, damned if I don't. //_

Might as well get caught red handed, trousers down and ass-raped for something he has done, than something he hasn't done on purpose, right? **That's** the general idea anyway.

Naruto walks out his front door whistling, slamming it loudly behind him. Before he leaves he checks the house boundaries, and it seems to be as if he's feeling for an invisible line that runs along the perimeter of the building. As everything seems to be in order he turns briskly about, shows a wide satisfied grin that reveals the sharp top tips of his canines glinting in the morning light, and he laughs, arms up over his head, before he seemingly just… disappears.

* * *

The door slams hard shut, and Sasuke Uchiha take time to reflect that this time the idiot didn't even take the time to yell a hurried "Goodbye."

Not that it matters, nothing matters of that element anymore, not to him anyway.

He's been reasoning with himself since the day before yesterday, exactly _what_ he's got to do… but the problem is he just doesn't know how to do it. Normally, if he were able to use Chakra, this job, this mission he had set himself would have already been completed. Minus the paper work. But now, instead of a fallen tree blocking his path, someone has relocated mount Fuji. And he doesn't even know where to start climbing.

He has to… the objective is to….

Again, Sasuke opens his mouth and tries with the delicate slip of his tongue to form a word. Although the thought registers, something actively prevents him from annunciating it. The syllables are swallowed violently and it's like he's fighting with a burning moth inside his head and throat. He grits his teeth and snarls in fury, trying hopelessly to grind the words from between his molars. But all that comes forth is a wrenched cry, like someone in anguish, which he supposes to an extent he is. The black things on his wrist and the one dead centre of his chest pulse, and burn coldly into his flesh and he hisses at the dull pain. Sasuke can feel himself flooding with a self-hatred of his body and it's limitations, and forces himself to stand up.

For a start he can begin with exploring the whole apartment undisturbed now that Naruto will be gone for a few hours. The idea of a task lightens Sasuke's mood somewhat, reducing the odd collision of thoughts and memories inside his mind. Reducing everything into pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle, something that he can assemble and disassemble with the view of a clear logical outline. It takes the human element out of it, and it's something he can handle, easier then breathing and twice as natural.

He begins by opening the door and stepping lightly out into the hallway. The boards creak underneath his weight, and he winces at the noise despite the lack of anyone else around to hear it. It's out of habit that he treads lightly, as if every movement is being followed and tracked by some invisible eye.

He moves methodically, trying in turn each door handle and cautiously looking inside. Sasuke is more than surprised to discover that Naruto's room is unlocked and unprotected from his invasion… he doesn't know why he's slightly perturbed by this. Because he expected resistance maybe? Some concern, to keep objects from his clearly prying nature? But there's no such barrier.

The second cause for surprise is at how _small _the room is, it must be half the size of the one he's sleeping in, and as untidy and cluttered as he'd imagine it to be. There are empty bowls on the floor as well as comics sprinkled liberally every few feet; a t-shirt sprawled in a puddle of absent material, forlorn and miserable in the middle of the floor. Sasuke has to try hard not to squash the impulse to march straight in there and clean it all up, to give himself piece of mind. He can feel it gnawing away in the back of his skull even as he forces himself to concentrate on things above floor level.

But this doesn't help: inevitably, Naruto's room is filled with what Sasuke can only describe as nostalgia. There are… pictures everywhere, not always in frames, but sort of scattered about here, there and everywhere and subconsciously his expression changes to become something very ugly.

It's a weird thing, Sasuke thinks absently as he steps artfully across the floor, feet finding spaces between the comics and scattered socks. He doesn't quite know _why_ he's possessed by an interminable desire to search around here in the first place. He wouldn't like to think he was nosy (Sasuke dear, you are in denial here,) it's more like an objective: know your enemy and you can never be caught off guard.

He's known- or he did know Naruto, for a long time. But, though few of their encounters so far have shaken him… he feels the blonde haired idiot has some hold on him: an invisible grip on his arm that no matter what he does he just can't shake off. It keeps him awake, wondering and puzzling over it, teeth grinding in annoyance.

After testing the drawers any sort of secrecy spell, he rifles through each one in turn. It's not too pleasant (Naruto's underwear, he believes, isn't fit for anything with eyes,) but there are only inconsequential clothes here, and rather puzzlingly a fork. Sasuke firmly shuts them all, with a self-satisfied 'I knew it' look bobbing curvaceously on his lips. It's about the closest thing to a flirt he can form and he's not even aware when he's doing it or what on earth the look is.

_//There must be something // _

Sasuke thinks, _something interesting_… where are the 'naughty' magazines? The porn? The condoms? The alcohol? _Something_ like that. He expects it from Naruto, as he peers speculatively under the bed- hastily withdrawing his head and wishing he hadn't looked.

There are dust bunnies the size of a small type of terrier under there… along with a moth eaten and clearly mutating fuzzy orange slipper.

_// God knows what possessed him to wear **that**….//_

Sasuke pushes himself back on his haunches, glancing speculatively at the wardrobe, head tilted to the side like a calculating bird.

_// …Why leave the job unfinished?//_

It's simple old stained oak panelling, pushed firm against the wall, with small, iron loop handles: an antique minimalist look. Sasuke's eyebrows rise up his brow without command: it's oddly… tasteful for Naruto. He is instantly suspicious. He moves an outstretched finger towards one handle, but millimetres away from the cold corrugated iron… the air prickles slightly.

He lets his mind probe… something surges down his arms, rippling down the flesh and through the skin, until it's stopped, sucked into a spinning black orb and then away into nothingness with a sickening swoon of faltering energy. Sasuke snarls, teeth grinding back, narrowly missing his tongue. He pre-supposed in his irritation that Naruto, being an idiot, will not have thought of protecting whatever is in said closet. On this point he is of course, proved wonderfully wrong. As his fingers make contact, the wardrobe seems to slip back into the wall, sensing intrusion without permission and it's defences are riled.

Something bitter and chalky billows over Sasuke, forming a choking, suffocating cloud. There seems to be an endless supply of it, and he's coughing and sneezing inside the swirling veil as it clings and settles onto every surface it can find.

He catches sight of himself in the mirror opposite.

_// And now I'm a giant snowman //_

During his sneezing fit, eyes watering, he watches the wardrobe slide _casually_ out of the wall again. As Sasuke stretches out his hands, he registers the fact that his body is covered in a particularly sugary layer of frosting. Naruto's choice of protection ward is most definitely not without personal humour.

_// Dumb idiot… What's he got to hide anyway//_

A change of clothes later, Sasuke is suitably annoyed not to give a damn what the hell the apartment looks like after he's done with it. He's decided to leave Naruto's room well and truly alone however, after the chalk covering the floor started to clump together to form several rude words along the politest version of: 'Got you good, Nosy GIT!' He couldn't quite get _all _the chalk out of his hair. To his great annoyance, the more he washed it the more it seemed to stick. But he's hoping (more accurately, wishing for a miracle,) that the grey streak isn't that noticeable.

Sasuke resumes exactly what he was doing before Naruto's room attacked him, (Sasuke point-blank refuses to acknowledge even the _slightest_ hint of amusement,) but now he doesn't bother with subtly. He slams open doors and twists handles in a most unforgiving manner, yanking open the door to Naruto's bathroom most fiercely.

He begins mercilessly poking around, opening up cupboards and bottle lids, knocking things aside in the medicine cabinet. The only things present a few aspirin, several years over their sell by date, so Sasuke bins them. If he takes those he thinks he'll probably pass out… stupid fox. There's also a tube of orange toothpaste, an orange toothbrush, an orange razor, a bottle of orange cough mixture and a half empty bottle of – thankfully not orange- sleeping tablets. Sasuke has to stare, vaguely bewildered and eyebrows raised, before he can quite register the ubiquitous colour.

He finds himself staring at the bottle of sleeping tablets for a long time, until he pulls it down and shakes it about a bit. The bottle looks quite new, and is a high dosage. It's obviously used quite often. He puts it back, frowning, not knowing if he's slightly disappointed or not. He didn't really expect to find a bottle of chloroform, poison or (heaven help him) Viagra. But there's nothing really unusual at all about… well, any of it. His hunger is slightly lessoned by the fact that the finds a bag full of make up under the sink and decides to reserve judgment when he thinks about whatever possible use Naruto could ever have for it. It's too… _weird_ for his brain to compute the idea of him wearing it.

Sasuke spends most of the morning and early afternoon thoroughly exploring every nook and cranny of Naruto's apartment that he can find, and it is much more dangerous then it would seem to be.

The closet in the dusty unused room at the end of the hall, for example, should-never-be-opened-EVER, because when it is the clutter descends like a waterfall all over and on top of said opener. Or rather, victim. Sasuke spent the better half of an hour wiggling and dragging himself out by his elbows to save himself from being crushed to death- all the time wondering how the **_hell_** Naruto had got all that stuff in there in the first place. There are also sharp objects in the coat and umbrella stand where he was sure he was going to loose an eye, as well as some sort of carnivorous, blood thirsty bat living in the broom cupboard the size of a -and Sasuke will swear this on his life- a baby elephant.

By the end of it all he's furious with Naruto and even more so with himself because he's exhausted and hungry, and he's betting after yesterday that there won't be any nicely prepared food for him, barely edible or otherwise.

As he ambles, hands in pockets down the stairs, dignity still intact… somehow: his stomach revolts at how absurdly normal the whole set up is. It's so goddamned _complacent_, so _homely_, so _fitting in_, and he hates it. He hates it with every solid fibre of his being, which is saying a lot because it takes a lot for Sasuke to hate something: he's lazy to an extent. He works on impulses of brilliant focused concentration on something that consumes him and just doesn't give a damn about the rest.

He pushes open the door to the kitchen with one hand and stands in the archway, naturally eyeing up the place were he had thrown the ramen bowl at Naruto. For a moment he can see the idiot now, looking up at him, blue cornflower eyes reflecting something very close to terror as Sasuke had bent down close to him. It had occurred to Sasuke then and there, as he whispered those two words in that tone laced with venom, that Naruto wasn't, really, very unlike the rest of them. Naruto had held Sasuke at arms length, not because he chose to but because he didn't know what else to do. He was, in short, afraid of him.

Sasuke finds himself smiling again, the expression that is anything but a smile. Fear can be manipulated, channelled and warped into things that control and master a person. He considers for a moment what he could do to Naruto with it, and his mind wanders, eyes scanning the room, vision falling on the bowl of cereal as his stomach gives a particularly loud growl.

As he moves towards it, ravenous despite his resolve not to eat anything the idiot has had a hand in making, he finds it odd. It's too nice a gesture, far too nice, considering everything. His hand hovers over the spoon as he sits down, craning over the bowl and scrutinizing it from all sides. But he can detect nothing wrong with it from it's general appearance, golden cornflakes sprinkled with a generous helping of sugar. He takes the carton of milk, checks the sell-by-date, which seems fine, and eyes still narrowed he pours the milk over the cornflakes.

The cornflakes act as anyone would expect them to. Nothing explodes, it doesn't change colour or start to smell like dead rotting fish- and that's something. Knowing Naruto… _anything_ could happen.

He dips the spoon in, waiting…. Absolutely nothing.

He opens his mouth, pink tongue dipped and curved as the spoon goes in and he tastes the cold metal and then… and then…

He wretches, gags and spits back into the bowl again.

Ample helpings of salt. Not sugar.

_// Freakin'… Hilarious //_

Sasuke Uchiha thinks he might very well be sick now, and if he is, he's jolly well going to do it all over the idiot's bed.

* * *

Naruto walks towards his desk, peering over the huge pile of papers he's cradling in his arms. He blows blonde trails of hair out of his eyes and snaps irately:

"Why is there a giant needle on my desk? There's a giant needle on my desk!!!! GIANT NEEDLE! I have to do **paper work **people. **_Paper work!_** Why do none of you understand this simple fact?!"

He shouts the last part, slamming the wobbling stacks down on one corner as Ino wanders over and picks up said evil needle. He glowers at her as she sticks it into her long blond hair and blinks her wide eyes at him.

"Hair ornament," she states flatly, looking him up and down as if she suspects he just might have something contagious. Naruto snorts at her, slamming behind the desk, and makes a fuss about something else: muttering and scowling at anything and everything within ten meters.

Ino turns to the closest person behind her which happens to be Neji and asks "Is he okay?" to which Neji gives her a pained _please-don't-ask-me_ look, replying "he's

been like that all morning." Neji moves promptly off before Ino can say anything else. She puts both hands on her slim hips, and her mind clicks and whirrs into a meddling mode. Her sensibilities tell her that approaching Naruto at this point in time would be encroaching on a subject knows as Suicide, especially since he seems to be oozing a black cloud of ill-will over the surrounding area. All passing Jounin scuttle past looking wary.

Pushing her light blonde fringe from her eyes, she moves gracefully around the area and walks down the hall. She waves at Hinata who walks out of an adjacent room- followed closely by Neji, who is regarding the shy girl with a curiously soft look. Ino finds herself grinning, thinking that if Kiba doesn't hurry up soon he's going to have some serious competition on his hands.

She beckons Hinata to her, and waves Neji off with a dismissing hand movement- which is something because Neji can look _quite _foreboding in full ANBU get up. But he seems to take little notice of it, and walks collectedly past Ino after saying something to Hinata, who looks surprised and then a little confused.

"Your cousin," Ino says, mouth milky pink and half-cynical, half-smiling as she says it, "is rather formidable, isn't he?"

Hinata looks embarrassed as she bites her lip and tries to nod and shake her head at the same time. She looks, again, utterly confused afterwards. They stand in the corridor for a minute chatting, until Ino grabs Hinata by the collar when no one is looking and drags her into a nearby cupboard, where she hisses: "What the hell is wrong with Uzumaki?" Hinata looks stressed, although neither can really see as the cupboard door closes in on them. She's stuck in the dark with a mop poking into her back and a bucket stuck on one foot.

"Wrong? Wrong… why should anything be… wrong?"

She is a hopeless liar and they both know it. Ino smiles like a cat cornering it's prey and leans in a little closer.

"I _know _when Shikamaru's keeping a secret from me. I _know_ when Kiba's in on the secret and for some reason I'm still clueless. I also **_know_**, Hinata, when you _know_ something, and I don't. One thing, which you are all going to ridiculous lengths to cover up! Naruto's been acting weird ever since he came back from that last mission, and to be frank Shikamaru has too… he keeps talking about Naruto all the time, and yet he refuses to tell me why! He thinks I don't know anything! **_HA!_**"

Ino gives a loud derisive laugh and ploughs on, her eyes glinting:

"I know the Hokage's in on the whole thing, and that Iruka doesn't know why Naruto spent two hours and forty five minutes in there with her and a council of elders being quizzed about whatever the hell it is."

She crosses her arms and sits on another upturned bucket, narrowing her eyes accusatorily. The look gives Shikamaru shivers whenever he sees it, because it's Ino being at her bossiest. Hinata quails somewhat and shrinks as far back into the corner as she can manage. She likes Ino, she really does, but she isn't half a handful at the best of times and she's been particularly crabby ever since Sakura left. Even though she acts like she doesn't miss her.

"Who did they bring back with them, Hinata, on that mission? Who was the extra passenger? Why was that ward all blocked off in Kohona hospital for the entirety of two weeks? And medical-nin had to be escorted down with ANBU guard? Who are they keeping all locked up? What are they hiding? **Hmmm**? _What? **Tell me**_!"

Hinata is quite sure that if she doesn't answer the question, Ino will simply crack her mind open anyway and read the information that is in there. She finds her hands scrabbling madly by the handle; _she_ only found out by accident anyway! She'd rather die then betray Kiba's trust in her.

She is, however, saved from Ino's thorough inquisition when the cupboard door is tugged open and Shikamaru is revealed- Kiba peering curiously over his shoulder, sipping coffee.

"I thought I detected your high pitched shrieking tones," Shikamaru says, looking down, one eyebrow raised. Ino looks disappointed and a terrorised-looking Hinata scrambles towards Kiba as fast as she can. "What on earth are you two doing?"

"Talking…" both Ino and Hinata say haltingly.

Kiba and Shikamaru exchange looks… "In the broom closet?"

_//Women… //_

Ino dusts dirt from her forearms and doesn't answer, sniffing disdainfully as she rises from the up-turned bucket with surprising dignity. "Why aren't _you_ working?"

"I was working. Your voice just grinds so gratingly on my nerves I find it impossible to do anything, until I've found you to tell you once and for all to just shut up."

"Go on, be rude, how very unsurprising and thoughtful of you, just come out here and yell at me in front of everyone? You have no respect for me at all do you?"

"Ino, that is a gross understatement. I have a healthy respect for you which is why I try to keep as far away as possible from you at all times. And as far as shouting goes, we all know it's usually the other way around. I can't ever _hope_ to be half as **annoying** as you are."

Ino's chest swells as she crosses her arms and leans back a fraction. Tossing long blonde hair over her shoulder, mouth down and scowling, she licks her lips and prepares to spit back hellfire at the man who stands lazily in front of her. Dusky, angular, somewhat teasing, hands in pockets and spine slouched.

"Should we… stop them?" Hinata asks, whispering into Kiba's ear by standing on tiptoe.

"Whatever for?" he responds. Without looking, Hinata knows Kiba to be smiling. She can hear it in his tone of voice: "It's just getting to the good part!"

True to Kiba's thoughts, Ino did look as though she was about to rip Shikamaru Nara limb from limb in her fury with her bare hands. But she was, sadly for Kiba, stopped- as Iruka who happened to chance walking down the hallway at this point spied the up-and-coming commotion and had the sense to break it up.

"Oh no!" he told them, irately shooing them back down the corridor again and through into one of the many office rooms.

"You guys are not doing that again, not after last time. I still haven't regained hearing in one of my ears thanks to you lot."

He looks pointedly at Ino, who seems to pretend not to hear him, merely sticking her nose stubbornly in the air. Kiba looks thoroughly disappointed.

It's an odd thing to know that you're a higher rank then your former teacher; it's even odder to know it, and yet for the fact not to matter: they all stand there for a full ten minutes and receive the scolding full on from their former academy teacher. This is until Iruka, confident that they've been berated enough, suddenly seems as though he's lost something. He peers at them, although he's about the same height as Kiba and Shikamaru:

"Where is Naruto?" he asks suspiciously, as though someone is hiding him beneath their shoe. "If he's not _here_ causing trouble with you… then _where _is he causing trouble?"

Iruka is giving them the exact same look of last month when he found Naruto sprawled unconscious on the sidewalk with toe imprints on his forehead. The sort of, "I-don't-believe-it-what-have-you-done-_now_?" expression.

"He's doing paperwork." Ino says placidly, sniffing disdainfully as Iruka gives a small snort of laughter.

"No really, where is he?" he enquires again. Naruto hates paperwork- he has to be dragged in by the ankles kicking and screaming before he'll consider doing it.

"No really," Shikamaru states back, nodding his head towards the direction Naruto is working in. Iruka peers around the corner sceptically, wondering if it's some sort of elaborate joke, and then asks genuinely: "What's wrong with him?"

"Lots of things," says Kiba, sipping his coffee in the same way you would take a sip of cola at the cinema and reach for your tub of popcorn. "Where do I start? He likes to dance when he thinks nobodies watching, mostly in the kitchen and he forgets to close the blinds, and he has a mole on his left hip which I keep telling him to get checked out because it could be cancerous, but will he listen? No! He says that's only if it's hairy, and it doesn't count if it's a weird shape. And I say it does but he doesn't believe me, personally I think it's because it looks exactly like a-"

… But Kiba never gets to finish saying exactly _what_ Naruto's mole looks like because Shikamaru, for dignities sake, claps his hand over the his mouth. He gives a very strained smile and concludes with as much composure as possible: "We'll go talk to him, don't worry." Which is a feat because Kiba, stopped in mid sentence, has yet to draw breath and begins to turn slowly purple.

Iruka looks disbelievingly at them for a minute but seems to think the better of it, because he turns to leave only adding "I'll be back to check," in rather ominous tones. Shikamaru removes his hand and lets Kiba slide to the floor in a dizzy pile to resume breathing again, eyes spinning whilst Ino taps her feet, looking accusatorily at all three of them.

"Well?" she asks: "Shikamaru Nara, aren't you going to explain to me what's going on?"

Shikamaru stretches and links his fingers behind his head, his look no longer playful but somewhat business like. "Nothings going on," he says very simply just as a muffled cry of anger drifts out of the room behind them.

"He sounds like a strangled crow," Kiba comments from his pile on the floor.

Ino raises both of her long pale eyebrows over her dewy eyes, and she plants her hands on her hips. "And tell me why I'm supposed to believe that Shikamaru, give me **one** good reason?"

"Because I'm not going to tell you." Shikamaru replies, rolling his eyes. "Why do insist poking your nose in everywhere, Ino? Especially when it's not wanted. It's got nothing to do with you."

"Nothing to do with me?" Ino protests looking somewhat hurt and then angry, "he's my best friends boyfriend- of course it has something to do with me you huge great lump of an excuse for a human being!"

"And that's why!" Hinata suddenly interjects, and then looks startled at her own boldness for speaking so loudly. They all stare at her and Kiba jumps to his feet.

"Erh… what I mean is… it's well…" she bites her lips, and forefingers and thumb come together as she blushes furiously. "He's upset because he hasn't got a letter from Sakura yet."

_//The lies, Hinata, the **lies….** //_

"It's been over three weeks you know," Kiba finishes for her, and stands protectively in front of Hinata, shielding her from Ino's accusatory glare. "They parted and, well, it wasn't on unfriendly terms but he wanted a bit more than what he got."

"Oh," Ino suddenly breathes out very slowly and seems relieved, "is _that_ all it is? I thought he was having an affair or something from the way you guys were carrying on. I mean, he's acting like he's had a lovers spat or something along those lines."

Shikamaru and Kiba exchange fast uncomfortable looks of _// I really hope not. //_

"Why don't we," Hinata suggests, soft fingers curling around Kiba's elbow and pushing them down so she can side step and move in front of him, "go see if he has any mail from Sakura? He's bound to get letters because it's a mercenary mission into a neutral zone and she's just helping treat the casualties brought about by that flood. He might even be able to gain visiting access if he applies early enough. Do you want to come with, Ino?"

Ino raises her hands behind her head, links her fingers and pushes back, unclenching the knot in her spine and making her seem about two inches higher. She can't disguise the look of relief that passes over her milky pink lips as she gives a small start of laughter.

"Yeah, I think that would be a great idea."

Hinata smiles, walking forwards and taking her by the arm. As they walk off down the corridor together both boys can distinctly hear Hinata saying, "Maybe we could write her letter too?"

"I have no idea how she does it," Kiba says, smiling fondly after the Hyuga girl- his eyes half closed, watching until they disappear around a corner.

"It's called tact," his friend states somewhat bluntly, hands still in pockets.

"Well I ain't got none of that," Kiba agrees with a wolfish grin. "I was just gonna sit and watch whilst your girlfriend ripped you limb from limb."

"She _not_ my girlfriend," Shikamaru tells him and his tone is sharp as he turns about and begins walking towards the room Naruto is occupying. Funny muttering sounds are leaking out and drifting down the hallway.

Kiba bounces up and down behind him, "You still fancy her though," and he can almost see Shikamaru rolling his eyes through the back of his head. "Had it not have been for Iruka, you guys would have totally gone for each other. It would have been great to watch," he adds somewhat remorsefully.

He is ignored.

In a great display of courage Shikamaru approaches the desk that wobbles heavily with pile upon pile of paper. The mountains tremble somewhat, shielding their occupant securely from view. Both he and Kiba can feel the bad mood spooling behind it, oozing and trickling, swelling against a high-fastened wall and pounding to get out.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru asks, hoping his voice does not sound overly cautious. He has not as of yet dared to put his hands on the desk, having a looming fear of them being smashed by a bad tempered fist. There is a grunt from somewhere in the paper pile and a few sheets move in a seething mass of white, but apart from that nothing. Shikamaru swallows and licks his lips and looks imploring at Kiba, who sighs dramatically.

_// Icebreaker here I come. //_

Kiba takes a swallow and a gulp like a deep-sea diver about to embark on a long airless plunge, sticks his head right in amongst the piles and shouts:

"**TROUBLE IN PARASIDE MY GOOD FRIEND?"**

It takes courage because they all know what will happen next. There is an enraged yell from somewhere in the mass of paper as it seems Kiba was expelling right into Naruto ear, there is a thick thump, from which the flashing vision of a fist can be seen, and a yelping Kiba falls backwards, rubbing his nose which sports an ink splotch at the tip.

Shikamaru seizes the chance to dodge around the edge of the desk, the commotion causing the papers to spill like a white tide over the floor, and suddenly the air is filled with a tumultuous confusion of dancing white papers like Lilly petals swirling and dashing on eddies.

Naruto stands, looking outraged and thoroughly angry as he catches sight of Shikamaru around the corner of his desk, laughing at him and the mess. In blind anger he moves at him, guided only by his feet, and this is the moment Kiba has been waiting for. He jumps up and over the desk, batting papers from the air, seizes Naruto about the middle and sends him crashing to the floor (unfortunately) on top of Shikamaru. They all lie there, breathing heavily, absolutely breathless, uncomfortable and covered in paper cuts.

"Good afternoon Uzumaki," Kiba says into Naruto's shoulder. His hands are on some bodies upper thighs and he wiggles them experimentally. Shikamaru twists to knee him in the chest.

"You guys," Naruto hisses in his best _I-am-so-pissed-at-both-of-you-right-now-you-just-wouldn't-believe-it _voice "I am seeing stars."

"I can't feel my feet…" Shikamaru says in a half wondering voice, "so I can't really help you there." A solitary piece of paper flutters over-head and settles neatly on his face.

"Oh bollocks." They hear him mutter from beneath inky scrawled handwriting. "Naruto, you filled this out all wrong."

"I-DON'T-CARE-ANYMORE!" Naruto announces fiercely, turning a sentence into a grossly over-syllabled word; meanwhile trying to wriggle out of Kiba's pinning grasp. The wolfish boy's arms are still linked like a vice around his hips as if he's never _ever_ letting go.

"What is it anyway?" Kiba muffles, now talking into the blonde haired youths stomach.

"A form of some sort." Shikamaru (with effort) reaches up and picks it from atop his nose and blinkingly inspects it.

"Don't look!" Naruto shouts; he kicks at Kiba harder but those arms must be held on by something stronger then superglue because he doesn't yield in the slightest. If anything the grip gets tighter and they all get more tangled up as Naruto reaches forwards, sprawled flat on his stomach like a lame cow with a huge limpet stuck to it's back. Shikamaru meanwhile leans back, trying to read the whatever-it-is underneath the combined body weight.

He wonders vaguely, if he's ruptured his spleen.

They all wiggle for a moment longer before it turns into a full-fisted brawl, and it's a very odd sight to behold. Choji ambles in halfway through to pick up something he's left behind: in the confusion nobody notices and in the shouting nobody hears his exclamation of "What in hell?" before he turns promptly and marches straight back out the way he came again, shouting after Ino: "He's doing it again!"

"It's an ANBU form!" Shikamaru shouts down to Kiba after another minute of struggling. Naruto slumps down, sweating and swearing into the hard wooden tiles. It's entirely too much activity for Shikamaru: he's going to skive the rest of the day off, find a tree to sit under and go to sleep.

"A **what**?" Kiba asks, and he sits straight up from his waist, relinquishing his super-human grip and snatching the paper out of Shikamaru's hands.

"You told us you weren't going to…"he says in an accusatory tone of voice. "You talked to Kakashi-sensei about it and he said you just weren't cut out for this sort of thing! They're looking for a much more violent type then you are… Naruto… Naruto? Are you listening?"

"Yeah well," the blonde snarls from the floor, one arm draped over his blue eyes so they can only see his mouth, twisted back into an expression of inner revulsion. "Maybe you guys don't know me as well as you think you do."

Kiba blanches, "You know bullshit makes me sick- Maru, what the hell is he talking about?"

Shikamaru kneads his forehead with his knuckles and lets out a long sigh. This is entirely _too_ bothersome for his liking- all he really wants to do is watch the clouds pass over-head and maybe doze off for a while, but he knows it's not an option. It's not integrity that's calling him to act; it's a friend, and a close one at that.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he says in an even, patient voice, "what did he say to you?"

"Didn't say anything," comes the muffled, awkwardly stubborn reply.

"Who said what?" Kiba asks, looking confused.

He is again ignored. Shikamaru's not playing this game, he's not a fan of having his time wasted by entirely pointless things that take up his energy. "Naruto, either you tell me or I'm never treating you to ramen again."

There's a pause.

"Ever." For extra effect.

Then a quick silence.

"What happened, Naruto?"

"We're not…" the words come slowly and with some difficulty, lying on top and underneath him, both Kiba and Shikamaru can feel Naruto tense, every muscle in his body seems to clench as he sucks in air. "I'm not really speaking to him."

"Really?"

"No," Naruto says, and his voice is rather distant as his memory travels backwards, seeming to hitch and replay over and over again. "Not until he apologises."

"Oh…" says Kiba helpfully, "so you guys will never speak again then?"

Once again the penalty for stupidity is to be kicked painfully in the ribs. "What's he apologising for?" Shikamaru asks curiously as Kiba writhes around for a bit, thoroughly winded.

"It was- I was… It's stupid really."

"Stupid enough to make you mad?"

"Maybe… I don't know. Silly thing is most of it… all of it's probably true anyway. I thought maybe I was hiding things from myself or hiding in things and I just hadn't realised. I'm an idiot, I'm just too stupid to see it." He removes the hand from his face and they see in his expression, something that makes them worried, a self-defeating look that slips down the sliding slope into nothingness and despair. They hang on tender-hooks now they can see him falling closer inch by inch.

"You can't change people I guess, they'll always stay the same… no matter how much you… how much or how hard you try…"

"Oh **_Gawd_**." Kiba snorts and he punches Naruto hard on the shoulder so his head slams forcefully into the floor. "You sound just like Neji!"

"You're being ridiculous, listen, how do you think you got here anyway? By luck? If it was then you sure as hell used up all the luck there is in the world because through all logical thinking now, you really should be dead." Both Shikamaru and Kiba shake Naruto firmly by the shoulders as if trying to dislodge his brain and smash some sense into it. "Stuff whatever Sasuke says, do you hear? He doesn't even have to stay with you much longer, you heard Tsunade! Another month and if he's not dead then he's clear to be moved and Kakashi will be back and everything will be back to normal again!"

"We can only hope he dies…" mutters Shikamaru, looking dreamily up at the ceiling. Kiba shivers and counts on his fingers, "One bad Karma, two bad karma, three bad karma four. Five bad karma, six bad karma, seven bad karma more…." It's a nervous habit.

It's weird, Naruto thinks, to have your two best friends simultaneously trying to cheer you up in two dynamically different ways. Like paint and glue it sticks and coats him until he's fighting down something in his throat and biting his tongue hard to stop himself from saying something stupid. Whatever Sasuke says, he's not alone… he's just not. Not now, not ever. Never _ever_ again.

"Naruto?" the voice from above, it's Kiba and he sounds worried, "You're not…you know…crying are you?"

"No," Naruto says entirely too defensively to be believed, as he takes a extended shuddering breath in, "of course I'm not."

"You're a damned girl." Kiba mutters, his hands still firmly putting pressure on his shoulders and somewhere behind them Shikamaru collapses into a limp lump on the floor and closes his eyes scattering sheets like snowflakes. (Damn it got messy in here.)

Naruto raises his arm from his eyes which are dry and a clear unyielding innocent blue, and knees Kiba in a certain unmentionable place who gives a small _"Oh!" _before collapsing all over Naruto's left shoulder and moans that he wants to die.

"Whose crying now?" he mutters, grinning.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha freezes as the front door clangs open. His heart begins to beat marginally faster as he bids a sudden and hasty retreat into the nearest bathroom and wishes that the air didn't seem so thick.

He turns on the taps and sticks his pale hands under, watching as the substance goes swirling down the drains and yet more seeps back up to the surface again like a molten eruption. He bites down savagely on his lower lip, his mind feels a little hazy and slightly disorientated but his thoughts are as keen as ever. He's spent the day searching for a way out and he thinks now he just might have found one, but it'll be no good if the idiot just walks in here and sees him like this because… because….

Sasuke tenses as he hears footsteps on the stairs, and strains to listen for how many: if it's Naruto and co. he's in big trouble, but Naruto himself, by himself, he can handle. For a moment the footsteps dwindle and then stop. Sasuke wills them to continue: "We're _not talking_," he mutters, "You're _angry_ with me, just leave me the hell _alone_."

And for a while nothing happens and Sasuke wonders why Naruto just doesn't keep on walking until he realises by looking at the medicine cabinet that _shit _it's not his bathroom.

At the same time he moves to the door to lock it shut it's shouldered open, and the blonde tresses framing that bold face with remarkably pure blue eyes moves in, mouth frowning, displeased. "Get the hell out!" form on his lips before he registers… and then halts, and does so completely, because he suddenly panics, and falls back against the door which swings shut behind him, clicking solidly closed.

"Sasuke," he says on the out breath, in tones below a whisper, "what the hell happened?"

The Uchiha looks down at the basin. The white tiles are covered in thick clots of deep crimson, and little pools of blood slide in carmine rivulets down the sides, and the water is turned a deep pink.

He gives a smile, the sort you might see from a snake before it bites you: slow, unfathomable and infinitely dangerous, inky black eyes impossibly dark and somewhat devouring. Naruto presses his spine back flat against the door.

"…Are you sure you want to know?"

The question hangs.

* * *

This is one of those chapters I had no intention of writing, tried not to write but ended up doing so anyway. It left me exhausted, and utterly drained. There's...no Sasuke or Naruto interaction in this one, at least not very directly. But the chapter just seemed essential to write in order to convey across what's going on outside so you don't feel like you're in a bubble. Writing Kiba and Shikamaru makes me laugh, I hope you enjoy reading their silliness. Big thank you to Failing Mentality for your chapter suggestion and your helpful crits. Drabble will hopefully be written this week for you (I keep thinking about feet every time I sit down to plot it...I have NO idea why).

Fully edited and re-checked, thank you editor-sama x3 !

Review (?) I ask with huge kittenish eyes for your opinion on this?


	6. We used to be friends

Chapter Six: We used to be friends

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be drawing it.

**EDITED VERSION: **Changes to fighting scene and my (crap) grammar, as well as minor plot holes...enjoy!

* * *

Naruto stands there for a moment, and then panics. _Seriously_ panics. Full throttle adrenaline rush, lets head for the sky- flushed through with fear.

_//Oh **GOD** who did he kill//_

That is, until he realizes that it is his reaction Sasuke is looking for above all else: dark eyes viciously curious. Not the look from someone who has just finished slicing and dicing some poor unsuspecting neighbour.

Naruto breathes slowly out and his blood stills, leaving room for collection and for emotions to stop swirling inside him. They reside in an odd tangy aftertaste of bitter resentment and anger- briefly he tries to swallow it down.

His attention now focused on the sink: there is blood on the white porcelain, blood because Sasuke is bleeding. This time, Naruto looks instead of assuming, notices how the hands are filled and criss-crossed with tiny delicate frisking cuts. Too small, too neat, too exact to have been done by accident- or even by Sasuke's own hand.

As Naruto stands against the door, his expression changes and the power swing shifts as the ball rolls into his court. He braces himself, muscles tensed for an explosion of energy as the atmosphere veritably crackles with tension. The only sound is of the water gargling down the plug hole, swirling down the old pipes into dank depths below.

"Oh," he concludes, voice deep and growling. He moves away from the door, footsteps slow and confident, and his cornflower eyes are a deeper blue then Sasuke thinks he's ever seen before. They smolder almost lazily, like an animal's in the shadow: watching for its prey to stumble, waiting to leap for the kill.

He watches as Naruto folds his arms, smiling, self-assured and somewhat calculating. Sasuke analyses the unexpected reaction, pushing trails of dark hair from his forehead.

_//That's new. //_

"I can't leave you alone for a moment, can I?" sounds Naruto's voice, as though berating a naughty child. The fox-boy knows this will annoy Sasuke, and it was not unintended. He's not a fan of having his life turned topsy-turvy, inside out. Neither is he a fan of having his feelings yanked up and spin-dried into a tangled confusing web, that doesn't know which end is up. He attacks where it hurts the most- the Uchiha's pride- and watches contemplatively as Sasuke turns to twist the taps off, his expression as expressive as a boulder.

"So you know all about it?" Sasuke asks simply, and he holds out his hands so Naruto can see where the skin has been ripped in thin symmetrical lines. Over the knuckles, in between the fingers to graze sore and painful across the thicker skin of the palm.

"I set the damned thing up," is Naruto's chiding reply. He doesn't mention 'with line-to-line instructions from Tsunade' who had badgered him incessantly all the way through his trial-and-error experiments that he was taking _far too long_.

"You suck as a house guest Sasuke Uchiha. You're rude and you're pissy, you don't say thank you and even worse you've always been better looking than me, so I can't pity you for being uglier then I am."

"Your cooking makes me sick." Is Sasuke's flat and petulant reply, with a sparkle of something in those dark eyes… satisfaction?

"Then make your own food!" Naruto hisses back, quite stung by this, he wasn't _that_ bad of a cook anymore!

"It would be easier on both of us if you just let me go."

Naruto's eyes narrow: cornflower eaten at the corners by an intense, thicker, bloodier colour as a creature called Temper rises inside his core. It seems to flood down his tongue into words, oddly indolent, as he leans forwards.

Inches separate their mouths from one another.

"Oh I think you at least owe me a thank you, don't you?"

The space between them feels like it is slowly being swallowed. Indeed it narrows when Sasuke takes a step towards his sentinel, quixotic eyes and dark lashes like a crow's wings noticeably murky with danger:

"Don't play games like this Idiot, you'll just end up loosing to me, like you always did and like you always do. Just like when we were kids."

"But I'm not a child anymore Sasuke, and I was never the sore looser."

His acid smile almost melts his teeth as he retorts, "You're still a child with your foolish wants, hopes and dreams. I want **out** Naruto."

The blonde shrugs his wide shoulders, but his expression remains intense. "Giving up so soon? Now why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Take down the barrier." It is not spoken. It's snarled.

Naruto pauses for a moment as if considering the demand… "Not likely," he finally wraps up with a grin. "And don't think any hissy-fit you throw will change my decision Sasuke."

The frustration escalates like steam inside a glass tumbler, hot white searing clouds that cling to everything they touch. Sasuke looks down at his hands again and Naruto can make out the lines around his mouth, grim and determined, like he's backed into a corner and running out of options. Slowly the lips part and the talk begins. The words are slow and considered, as if he's been thinking about them for a long, long time:

"When I open a window, or the front door, nothing happens. I would have thought that you'd have stopped me from doing that. So I'd have to break the door down, or create a whole in the wall to get out, which would cause me a lot of stress and pain. You might be an idiot, but you're not blind, you'd notice if I hurled your couch across the room and through the opposite wall. But you didn't want me to _not_ be able to open the door and windows, but you have made it impossible for me to leave. There's a barrier across every point of entry, it is invisible to the naked eye, it seems to shift and move and sort of gather like it's alive. It follows me about when I move, doesn't it? It's held in place with your Chakra, isn't it? You created it that way. " He brings his palms up to the ceiling light, inspecting the cuts there.

"It's very clever, people can come and enter as they please, but I can't leave because you don't _want_ me to, it's _your_ will power that keeps me in place, your prisoner in other words, because you _want_ to keep me here."

He turns his hands over and looks at the bleeding knuckles.

"I put my hands against it and it threw me five meters back against your kitchen door and into the cupboard where that… that _thing_ is living. In other words," he looks back up at Naruto, eyes suddenly much harder than a moment ago, "I'm fighting against your psyche."

Naruto blinks, he'd be a fool to underestimate Sasuke's powers of scrutiny, but that doesn't mean he has to like them. He finds them damn annoying actually.

_//Why can't he just leave well enough alone and concentrate on getting better//_

"I want you to take it down." Sasuke reiterates.

_//That's a tall order. //_

"No," Naruto replies bluntly without an infringement of false politeness, and his eyebrows have shot up all the way into his hairline. They are in danger of flying right off the front of his face.

"Take it down."

"How about… no?"

"**Take-it-down!"**

"**_Please_** don't make this so boring. No."

"_Naruto_!"

"I don't take orders from you Sasuke!" he shouts very loudly and all of a sudden, "or anyone else I don't particularly respect for that matter! Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Naruto, I **have** to leave here, if you don't willingly let me, so help me I'll-"

"Oh you'll _what_ Sasuke? You'll _what_?" Naruto jibes back, arms still firmly crossed, nails digging into the forefront of his elbows, riling the skin and digging it up.

Sasuke is silent, watching Naruto like a shocked panther: tensed and horribly alert, sensing as Uzumaki's temper slips closer and closer to the Edge as he continues: "You threw everything away once, I'm not letting you run off to Orochimaru again."

"**Can't**-" says Sasuke abruptly as if the word catches in his throat and he's just avoided coughing up his own tongue. He places one finger to his flushed burgundy lips and looks thoroughly shocked by the word.

Naruto frowns and watches perplexed as Sasuke blinks and recovers and murmurs: "If you won't let me go willingly Naruto Uzumaki, I'm warning you now, I won't let you stand between me and what I have to do. I'll… _kill you…_ if I have to."

The blonde youth merely glances at him with unconcerned blue eyes; the look probes everywhere and over every inch of Sasuke's body.

"You- you can't fight my battles for me," Sasuke snarls, feeling peculiarly taken advantage of and… embarrassed by the look… it goes _everywhere_.

Anger crawls under his skin as Naruto moves towards him with an irritating laziness, confident with his movements, and Sasuke leans backwards from his spine feeling threatened. Wide, beautiful, poised smile thrumming along the arching curve of Naruto's sensual mouth.

"Someone has to, because you certainly can't," he follows smoothly, flirting quite boldly with Sasuke's rage and confusion, and examines as the white-hot emotions spill over. Naruto (unwisely) pushes him further.

_//Why not// _

Frankly he feels like a fight and he's been on tender hooks for far too long without venting.

"I'll kill you," Sasuke grits out between his back molars, more a grunt than a sentence.

"With what? The toothbrush?" Naruto pokes, pushing really close now. Their noses are centimeters apart, his own eyes as turbulent as waters stained in a crimson sunset.

He widens the grin like a Cheshire cat, and his eyes flicker coquettishly to Sasuke's mouth and then up again to eyes that are neither inky black or smoky grey but a shade just between.

Sasuke, he notices, flushes: just slightly, barely noticeable, a pink tinge to ivory skin.

Leisurely Naruto reaches into his pocket and pulls out a kunai, holding it idly between his middle and forefinger, swinging the blade back and forth.

Then he throws it forwards and it lands, embedding itself deep into the plaster and wood in the wall just beside Sasuke's left temple.

The grin gets impossibly wider, yet every inch a fox's grin, low and seductive, pulling forwards and teasing. Deviously tempting and bewitchingly alluring.

"Go on then- _try_."

_//**Again**. //_

And with that, he turns his back in one fluid movement and walks out the door. Pausing in the archway, he looks casually back over his shoulder.

Sasuke stands stunned in the middle of the bathroom tiles.

Naruto's grins turns to something wicked, he winks and just _strolls_ into the hallway.

* * *

Sasuke remains motionless, seething for what seems an age, fingers trembling as they curl and uncurl from the palm of his hands. He glowers at the doorway Naruto has just so _confidently_ strolled through and turns back to the kunai embedded in the wall behind him.

_//It is not your goal, not your intention. //_

His fingers glance against the cold handle, corrugated iron bleeds against his fingertips as he slides them across the surface. It's real alright.

_//Why am I doing this? This won't help anything. //_

As if by its own convulsion his hand grabs out, settling the weapon in a deathly firm grip, muscles flex as he pulls it lithely out of the wall in a single yank. Wood splinters and plaster crumbles to a white pile on the slated floor.

Sasuke… in all truth he's not quite sure of what he's going to do with it. Something raw and throbbing he needs to know and identify, some urge he has to see through.

Maybe it's because he's not used to Naruto getting the better of him, argumentatively or verbally. But it might be the fact that… it's something he _is_ used to. He's used to their confliction. He's on familiar ground here, ground he knows he _can_ win.

He flicks dark hair from his eyes, flexing his limbs, drawing the shoulders back as he slips deadly and silent out of the door. Pale skin contrasts starkly against the bottomless black of his eyes.

Naruto is as expected waiting for him, down the other end of the corridor, face drawn into an eager and savage expression. Sasuke is caught for a moment as the blood pumps harder and faster in his ears by those intense blue eyes waiting… just waiting for him.

"Taijutsu." Sasuke announces and his voice rings hard and cold down the corridor. It reverberates against the walls before slipping down, deadly and silent to the floor like an encompassing cloak.

It's too narrow to fight properly- Sasuke finds himself thinking as he braces himself, setting his feet slightly wider apart, that someone has a high probability of going smashing through a wall. But even as he thinks it, he knows Naruto doesn't give a damn how much they wreck the apartment as long as it blows the tension straight out the window.

_// He'd be a fool to underestimate me… and I'd be a fool to underestimate him. //_

Naruto looks impatient as he shrugs his jacket from his broad shoulders and tosses it carelessly behind him.

"That's fine with me," he calls back bluntly. The intense gaze Sasuke notices never once shifts from him: there's no break in concentration and the whole air seems to pulse with how much they both _want_ this.

_// Playing fairs this time//_

Sasuke rolls the iron of the kunai in his hands, feeling the weight of it. He lets his eyes linger for a moment on Naruto's hitai, and states: "I mean it Uzumaki."

The blonde youth doesn't answer.

Instead, he comes at Sasuke in a blinding forward tackle- or rather, what Sasuke interprets as a forward tackle until Naruto completely disappears from in front of him. Caught off guard and cursing himself for letting his attention wander for the briefest instant he jumps backwards: arms flying back for balance as he lands skidding across the smooth wood. The friction makes the floor screech, a burning smoky tinge at the introductory abuse.

His eyes scanning the walls above, to the front and at the sides, his body in simple reflex automatically clenches to summon his sharingan. Except Sasuke knows by the dull throbbing in his chest and wrist, that there is no hope in hell this is going to happen.

It's on the third step backwards that causes alarm bells to ring like thunder inside his mind, primal instinct in its most refined form-

_//Behind you//_

- and he ducks, falling flat onto his palms as Naruto aims a blow for the space that his head had been occupying.

The lunge creates a moment of weakness: Naruto hadn't been expecting Sasuke to drop and he fumbles for a moment, providing the second the Uchiha needs to surge up from the floor. He twists his arms behind him as he rushes skywards, gripping Naruto's wrists, slamming his back so hard into Naruto's chest that bone crushes against flesh. Temporarily winded, Naruto goes _flying_: a hard solid something collides with his crown and the world bursts into bubbling white stars.

He's down for less than two seconds.

A beautifully fluid body in a seamless motion arrives to drive its foot through Naruto's skull- but Naruto will have none of it, shaking the sparks of distorted light from his mind and using them to increase his determination. His upper torso contracts and dodges the limb, blocking as Sasuke effortlessly shifts equilibrium, using muscular forearms to balance solely on powerful hands. His second foot swings towards Naruto's temple- in slow motion, the image is insane: a whole body propelling contorted torso and legs in a circular motion through the air.

Naruto is grazed and has to forcibly bend his spine in a way he knows it isn't really supposed to go. He is expecting Sasuke to continue with his hands, flipping out of the upside-down position he swung from. The spinning lion strike perhaps or something equally lethal- what he doesn't expect is the whole torso to _just shift like that_. Sasuke lifts his body weight upwards, arching his back, before curving back down onto his feet.

The angle of Sasuke's drop allows him to catch Naruto with a roundhouse blow that glances across his nose. He instinctively backs away as fast as he can, body lowering down the ground, shoulders raised, causing his hands to come into play with his movement as much as his feet do. Parallel to the ground, one foot stretched out behind him and one bent against his side- prepared to fly in any direction. It's a defensive and animalistic position, something he inherently adopts when the demon inside of him senses a challenge. Eyes fiercely alert, adrenalin pumping like a drug through his blood, as he licks his lips to taste a little metallic blood and the salt of sweat, he watches Sasuke intently.

Sasuke is breathing hard: he's not quite fully recovered from his ordeal, if he ever will do. Without Chakra, Sasuke's physical skills are still as strong as ever. Naruto ponders on this as he skids backwards: the Uchiha comes for him again, but he is ready now.

Rolling and dodging he spins, and his fist, spinning with him, crashes into Sasuke's stomach. The acid and bile that Sasuke spits up is noted with some satisfaction.

But he has no time to take further pride as Sasuke, coughing like he's going to die, aims a double-handed blow at his head (popular place today). Naruto is quick enough but only just, gripping Sasuke's approaching wrists and slamming them with force downwards. Wood splinters from the floorboards and fragments into dangerous rugged edged spikes right beside his left temple.

_// Now there is **another** bloody huge hole in this place. Great. //_

Naruto suspects Sasuke could probably crush his skull like an egg with his bare hands if he was allowed to get a good enough grip. Bone and muscle can only withstand so much, and it's not really a very pleasant thought.

Even trapped inside the fuel of the fight, Naruto cannot help but be fascinated by his opponent's gliding and subtle style. His movement had always been alluring, speed morphing him into deadly silent shadows, fluid as water and twice as strong, he cuts through space like a knife, brutally efficient and to a deadly point.

As he jumps back on the balls of his toes he finds himself laughing at the thought of death, as he's never done before.

Enjoying it as they circle each other, plaster and panelling pressing against his back, and for a moment, the tiniest moment, he can see what it is about Sasuke Uchiha that makes all the girls crazy about him. The intensity that is now focussed on him, Naruto Uzumaki: totally, entirely concentrated, and on nothing and no one else.

_//Not another soul apart from you… do I ever get this feeling with…. //_

For some unknown reason it make his body _thrum_ with pleasure.

"Is that the best you've got?" he jibes, sunny smile flashing white teeth and blue, blue eyes.

"You're a lot of talk, Naruto." Sasuke snaps at him, petulant mouth turning into a firm smile, the first proper, beautiful, funny, delightful, implausible smile that Naruto has seen him form for such a long, long while.

It makes him look human suddenly, a brief glimpse of someone from years ago… and someone he could have been.

"You always talk like you're the best. But can you prove it?"

Sasuke thinks the expression on Naruto's face once again becomes seductive as they continue to circle, and it feels like they're dancing, perfectly in rhythm, effortlessly. Sasuke can sense the slightest tensioning of muscle, bone and cartilage in Naruto's physique; the pause he makes with his left foot as his mind stumbles across a thought; the way his hands clench when he gets excited and the way his smile tugs his lips up at the corners to reveal passing smirks and the flash of teeth.

It's the smile that Sasuke's really watching… it takes him.

"This coming from a guy whose got black and white streaked hair?" The youth jokes back, "You're prematurely aging from fright Sasuke!"

Sasuke lets out a short sharp burst of laughter, it sounds almost like a cough, "Your stupid wardrobe idiot, it wouldn't wash out. And even if I was hundred I could still take you out."

"Ah," Naruto pauses for thought:

_//Sasuke in his room? In his wardrobe? Why//_

"Up against a young whippersnapper like me, when you were taken down by a piece of furniture, Uchiha? What hope do you have against the **next Hokage?"**

As he yells the last two words, he dashes forwards, feinting right, left, then right again. Playing with distraction. He was never as fast as Sasuke was in their youth. In his absence he's gained distance on him, closing the gap but not close enough. Yet Sasuke only half avoids the attack, and it's no surprise to either of them when they fall forwards together in an awkward tangle of limbs.

Staggering backwards, there is a loud **'crack' **as something that sounds like the dull crunch of bone slams against the wall. Naruto's legs in between Sasuke's legs, and he can't stop them from toppling off and down those stairs, the whole flight of stairs, right down to the very bottom.

Is it the idea that Sasuke is ill? The fact that he might of started this fight? Or maybe the remembrance that he's better off being hurt than Sasuke is?

When he considers it later, Naruto glides across the fact that he couldn't stand the thought of Sasuke breaking open his skull and spilling his brains across his clean varnished oak wood steps.

Much, much later, he'll realise that it's because the idea of Sasuke getting hurt like that in any way, form or manner, when he can't protect himself, when he's at a disadvantage, _because of him_, makes his head ring and his stomach convulse as if he's physically going to be sick.

_// To think I was nearing the point when I might have been able to make you admit to me that I am in fact your equal. //_

It's at that moment, when he subconsciously he pushes Sasuke on top of him, so _his_ spine and _his_ head take the brunt of the hard **'nackety-thump' **of the steps as they go clumping down them. Teeth clamped down hard in terror that they might slice off their own tongues.

With each jolt Naruto can feel the sharp stinging edge of the kunai pressing into his collarbone, raking against the skin, scoring flesh in small lumps.

As they tumble down the last steps together, Naruto's cranium colliding with a sickening '**crunch'** with the corner edge of the wall, he watches multicoloured explosions die down before his eyes. He dimly registers the pressure of another body over his as he lies on his back. Thick blood leaks up from the back of his throat from where he bit his tongue- he fears he might choke on it, and he gags.

"You win," He says, darkly, voice hoarse and rugged as his lungs convulse and wrack. Through the pounding in his brain, bitter resentment and futility seeming to flood him suddenly as he looks callously up at the ceiling.

_// Damn, I was **so close**, he was smiling at me…. //_

Sasuke doesn't say anything. He seems to be drawing long shuddering breaths. From Naruto's fuzzy vision, there's a bloody stain under the arch of one of his eyebrows and his bottom lip is torn- he can't quite make out the expression but he pre-supposes it to be a sneering ugly thing.

"Why- why did you do that?" are the only words Sasuke can think of saying, staring at the blonde with incredulous incomprehensibility lying in his eyes.

"Stupidity," he is told, cornflower blue stained darker from exhaustion, ribbing deepest maroon around the edges of the pupil. "Aren't you going to kill me?"

Sasuke wonders for a moment at the anger apparent n the youth's voice, mind still spinning reels from the stairs. He straddles Naruto slowly, considering, and presses the kunai to his throat. He keeps the blade just below the jugular, watching the Adam's apple bob as he swallows.

"So go on then, do it. Kill me."

Black eyes blink, but no movement, no killing strike, no malevolence, no hatred just blind confusion.

"Wasn't fair," Sasuke mumbles, and he begins to sit back, "Didn't win. I can't…won't."

Naruto snarls, exposing overly long canines in a mouth of human teeth. He doesn't want the Uchiha to act noble, not now of all times, not when he's trying to convince himself that there's nothing left there to save.

_//Monster… You deserve to die… You don't deserve to live. //_

"You swore on it."

_// Die//_

Sasuke licks his lips, but his hands don't move. They seem frozen in place and he's suddenly very aware of the fact that's he's _straddling_ Naruto.

Naruto who isn't twelve anymore, Naruto who is now an adult, mature, and strangely masculine- or at least it seems this way to Sasuke, the idea of sexuality pulsing at the back of his throat, and he shifts uncomfortably.

This is Naruto.

**Naruto** for fuck's sake!

Naruto who drives him mad, who makes him want to scream, who makes him want to cry, whom he wants to lie down next to and fall asleep with because no other place on earth is so secure.

His wrist flexes, and he makes to draw the kunai away, to throw it behind him and get up and walk away with his remaining dignity.

But Naruto- his Naruto, Naruto who is looking up at him with a curious mixture of self-loathing, bitter resentment and hate, stops him. The hand clamps down unmercifully tight on his wrist, holding it there; eyes, those cornflower eyes slipped with deep mauve blemishing and tarnishing the iris, holding him there.

"Go _on_ Sasuke, do it. Finish what you started."

Sasuke doesn't move. He can smell dust and crumbling plaster on the air mixed with the aroma of their perspiration. It is rich and thick on his tongue and he seems to swallow it down his throat: life essence, something he associates with living, breathing bodies.

His heart races, and he blinks again, forcing himself to think outside the walls, wrenching thoughts away from Naruto. Listening to the rain pattering against the window as the storm clouds roll in, grey and thick. Listening to lightening darts striking the earth, leaving trails of ozone meandering in the air, drawing it closer and making it warm and muggy.

Sasuke's eyes fix on where Naruto's fingers lace and fasten against his own.

Their heartbeats seem to mingle.

_// I couldn't kill you then... why should I be able to kill you now?// _

_//…This might be your only chance, Sasuke. I'm willing; go ahead…what have I got left to loose//_

_//…I won't kill you…//_

_// Just do it, don't make me wait, end it now but don't let it linger… don't you dare toy with me… don't you dare. //_

_// Let me go, let me leave. Please… please, please, please…//_

_// The worst part was when you called me a monster… I know you weren't lying… I could forgive a lie Sasuke Uchiha. //_

_// I can never tell you what I want to out loud… I can never say… Please… understand. //_

_// This game ends now. //_

To his horror Naruto pulls the blade and his hand down to his clavicle and up to the soft flesh, unguarded by hard bone, all pulsing tissue, malleable to the touch.

He applies pressure against Sasuke's hand. All the time his eyes never moving from Sasuke's face, watching as it contorts in surprise and then terror as the clean sharp edge digs a smooth line into the skin, drawing blood.

The harder Naruto presses against his hand the deeper it goes in. A swelling of crimson blossoms across the line of the cut, and dribbles on the sheen of smooth iron, jolting Sasuke out of his stunned reverie. He rips his hand back, kunai clattering bloody to the floor.

"Stop it!" he yells, enraged that Naruto simply lies there and watches him do it, he opens his mouth lazily and responds: "Maybe I was hoping you'd follow something through for once."

"Don't give me that **bullshit**!" Sasuke snarls, more panicky that he thought he could be, hands shaking and heart pounding like it will skip out of his throat. "How can you become Hokage if you die first? Or do you enjoy pain, you _masochist_? In which case-"

And he draws back his fist and punches the blonde youth beneath him, fist recoiling back and up again like a piston, body flooded with cold icy rage, rage that burns when Naruto just turns the other cheek, and laughs bitterly back at him.

"And what about you? I thought you _meant_ to kill me? Or was that all an act? Like everything is? Like every word you say ends up being, either a lie or a broken empty promise," he spits out his words like bullets.

"I'm not playing with you Naruto you _idiot_. I meant what I said."

"Oh did you- so when you've _killed_ me, where will you go?"

"It has nothing to do with you."

"Like hell, it does!"

"**You shouldn't care!"** There seems to be an edge of desperation to Sasuke's voice as he yells this, eyes glittering and intense, hands firm against Naruto's chest as he leans down, looking directly into his eyes.

"But I **do!**" More anger, mouth curved down, stubbornness and rigidity built and wielded into every line. It drives Sasuke crazy.

"You're an idiot then, you shouldn't …_don't!_"

The world lurches as Naruto surges up and pins him down easily beneath him; a drop of blood splatters onto Sasuke's neck from Naruto's, and slides down his skin onto the floor Those dark whisker-like scars are sunken in his cheeks.

For a fleeting instant Sasuke has the urge to trace them with his forefinger and run his fingertips across Naruto's cheekbones.

"Why do you think all your actions exist in isolation? Why don't you understand that it effects me?! Why didn't you understand that when you left you **_ripped_** me -us! …Sakura… she was so lonely…I didn't want her to be alone- I… didn't want to be… I'm… it's… it hurts, it still **_hurts_**." Naruto's voice cracks, and pain, physical pain and meaning is communicated in each vocal movement and syllable; breathless on the out breath, body shivering.

"It hurts **_so much_**, and you just keep pushing _and pushing_!" he was yelling now, palms a raw and throbbing pressure on Sasuke's shoulders. The hard weight of the floor boards and iron nails are pushing painfully into his skull.

"You just don't **_care_** do you? I do- _I **do**_- I can't stop caring and hurting…" his voice trails off and he squeezes his eyes closed, burning. His body drops an inch lower so he's almost lying on top of Sasuke, awkward odd angle, jutting elbows and scraping knees but Sasuke will tolerate it, for Naruto.

"I'm so tired of bleeding all over the place and having to avoid thinking about you. Justifying and defending you… over and over to others and then myself… even when I know you're just going to let me fall all over again. When you came back… I thought, this is it! We can finally go back to the way it was before. But we can't even stand to be in the same room together, can we? It's so hopeless! _It's so hopeless_. Why have I not given up on you? Why do I still… feel… this way… so strongly?" His whole face flushed, blush creeping up onto his cheeks as he presses fingers to his forehead and then his mouth, as if to hide the words that are over-flowing.

"Why can't I just learn to let you go?" It's a little less then a murmur, but then he falls and the strength of the sound is inconsequential to Sasuke, as it echoes in his head, and he finds Naruto collapsing on top of him, nose pressing against the junction of his neck, eyes… closed.

_// Oh God… he's unconscious//_

Sasuke Uchiha lies rigid under the blonde dead weight atop him, ruler straight in panic. _"Help!" _he says to the ceiling in a little under a whisper.

He lies slack for a moment, not even daring even to breathe. His head turns a fraction to the left, and says in low growling tones into Naruto's ear, "Get off me."

There is no response.

For a brief moment Sasuke thinks about how _highly_ uncomfortable this all is, with Naruto's hip jutting into his lower abdomen. A slightly bloody strand of hair hangs across Naruto's eyes, and the tang of blood ebbs slightly in Sasuke's mouth. But he can smell the blond boys hair, and his skin: soap mixed with the fresh scent of sweat and earth. He can feel the muscle definition of Naruto's legs and upper torso through his clothes.

_// Stop it! **Stop it!** That's enough//_

Sasuke twist and rolls, throwing off the dead weight, so that Naruto slides onto his back. His eyes remain closed, his breathing somewhat laboured and ragged. Licking his lips, Sasuke gets to his knees and stretches out his hand, brushing against the Kitsune's forehead, and then recoils like he's been stung.

_// Stupid idiot; he has a stupid fever. //_

And he glares at Naruto as if he's done it on purpose.

Sasuke rocks back onto his haunches, and considers. Does he leave Naruto here? He really is perfectly defenceless in this position, unconscious, probably dehydrated, starving, and running a temperature that could melt plastic.

He pokes Naruto experimentally with his foot in the ribs. The fool just groans, a deep noise right from his stomach, mouth contorted into a line of pain.

He leans down now and shakes Naruto by the shoulders, figuring it can't be good that he's passed out. Sasuke's hands come away damp with sweat. The blonde youth simply lies limp and placid, like a sack of wet noodles, bones seemingly slipping and sliding inside a casket of flesh.

"Listen, you didn't hit your head that hard," Sasuke states whilst wondering if the fluttering in his stomach is to do with repressed nerves. "I'm warning you Uzumaki, if this is some kind of joke…"

There's not so much as even a quiver of a response from Naruto, and Sasuke finds himself rather missing that idiotic, blithe smile. He allows himself a brief moment to think, leaning back, fingers drilling against his temples and sliding through the front curtains of his hair.

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asks himself, knowing full well he's not going to get an answer but asking it anyway because it needs to be said. The slight panic, he concludes, is from his own knowledge that he's never been very good when it comes to looking after other people. By nature, Sasuke Uchiha is not very empathetic to the needs and wants of others; he's far too self-centred. Sakura was always good at that sort of thing, the best out of all of them.

Maybe, Sasuke thinks, that was the reason why Naruto chose a life with Sakura, someone who understood him: riddled as he is with thousands of little misgivings, doubts, and plights, bubbling under the constant determination of 'I have to get better, so that people will like me.'

_// Who is going to accept me for who I am//_

Sakura accepts him, she accepted both of them, and Sasuke thinks, frowning, that she probably loves the fool too, in her way- different from the way he knew she loved him.

How could she not love Naruto?

In the face of loosing to Sakura, the Uchiha grimaces, baring his teeth and the pink slip of his tongue in a dark mouth.

This empathy, this touchy-feely, delicate nonsense is not his forte, and even as he bends down, bracing his knees and fidgeting before he starts, he recollects the fact that he really has no idea of what to do.

He's half inclined to take a bucket of ice water and dunk it all over the blonde's head, but that might cause Naruto to have a heart attack that really would kill him, and this, for the moment is _not_ Sasuke's intention.

He hoists Naruto up, so his head leans flopping against his shoulder, muttering: "Idiot-idiot, dumb ass, moron, block head, twit…" and an assortment of other variations on this theme. He pulls his torso up so that he is standing, and Naruto is leaning fully against him, legs dragging across the floor.

Sasuke bravely pushes down the panic that's swelling up inside as he tries to navigate the youth so he can wind one arm around Naruto's shoulder as they approach the stairs. He staggers slightly under the weight-

_// The idiot is pretty heavy after all…. //_

- and he eases him gently up the stairs, or as gently as can be humanely managed, which in retrospect Sasuke has to admit wasn't very gentle at all. Navigating with a dead weight is much harder then it would seem to be, especially when Sasuke slips at one point and the weight causes him to impale his stomach on the banister. Naruto slides down his shoulder and almost falls all the back way down the stairs again. Cursing his clumsiness and Naruto's bone-headed testosterone-driven stupidity, he manages to make it up the stairs, only to pause on the landing as he recollects briefly that he can't put Naruto in his own room because of… _ah_… 'The Mess'….

Sasuke can see round the side of the half open door and quickly retreats from it. No, he's **definitely** going to have to go in the room he's been using. It's not too much of a great deal; he'll just have to sleep on the floor.

_// Let's hope he grew out of that sleep talking habit. //_

Dragging and hauling Naruto across the bedroom, he tosses him with glorious relief onto the bed, stretching out his shoulders, and working out the kinks in his neck that seemed to have formed there.

The mattress creaks, the springs sagging and bouncing with the broader weight, and Sasuke looks critically at Naruto who does nothing more then lie there breathing shallow. Little rapid breaths and eyebrows clenched together as if in pain.

_// What do I do with you then, huh//_

First things first, he can't sleep in those clothes. If Sasuke had come across Naruto lying in the hallway with a fever a few days earlier, he realises he probably wouldn't have gone to the effort of caring whether damp clothes would make the Fox's condition worse. Would he even have carried him upstairs? Would he have cared at all?

But Sasuke tactically avoids such thoughts.

"Naruto," Sasuke says again, "I'm going to need you to take off your clothes for me."

It sounds wrong.

_// …I… NO. Mind… thoughts… **no. **Don't get ideas. //_

But the blonde is about as responsive as a rock. Sasuke leans down across him and tries again: he's not going to do this unless he really, _really_ has to.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, **Naruto**!"

Absolutely nothing. Becoming more desperate, Sasuke uses the back of his hand to slap him across his cheeks once in order to get himself some sort of response.

The Kitsune gives him nothing in return, not so much as a flicker of a reply to acknowledge that he's here, alive and still breathing. Sasuke finds himself analysing the face as his stomach claws down unexplained panic. There's a slight discolouring of the skin around the eye socket from where Sasuke punched him earlier. If the Fox's metabolism is working, it's working slower then usual: he'd expect a mark like that to not even register on Naruto's complexion, seeing as how lightly he'd punched him.

Sasuke grinds his teeth and considers the penalties on his own conscience if he just leaves Naruto here to get better by himself. Little flames of indignation burst up and down his system at the mere thought of it. It's a dishonourable thing to do, here he was _alive_-something he hadn't expected to still be- and here Naruto was ramming himself up against a mountain-wide brick wall, because… because….

He sighs noisily and clicks his teeth together. Fingers flex as they move haltingly in little jerky movements to Naruto's stomach, running smoothly under the material of the white t-shirt he's wearing.

_// Well… here goes nothing. // _

He pulls it up over Naruto's torso. Naruto's body flops awkwardly and more the point unhelpfully backwards against the motion, so that Sasuke has to fight to get it past his shoulders, then over his head- nearly scraping off both of his ears in the process- and finally pulling Naruto's arms out- all the time with a dark scowl on his face.

"I shouldn't be doing this," he mumbles, actively keeping his eyes on Naruto's face once the supple flesh of his torso has been exposed. He can half feel the milky cappuccino skin thrumming with heat just beneath him. His face stupidly feels as if it's burning.

He throws the shirt of the floor somewhere; he'll pick it up in a minute after he's… finished with this.

Sasuke sits for a moment, breathing as if he's just run a marathon. Now to that question of 'does he throw Naruto under the covers wearing those trousers?' Does he _dare_ think about taking them off him, and if he does… is Naruto wearing anything underneath them?

Sasuke finds himself resisting the urge to slam his head against the wall and repeat the motion over and over again several times. Or, more satisfyingly, slam Naruto's.

_// Okay…so…just check first// _

Here's another thing he'd never thought he'd do, blushing heavily, he _even_ closes his eyes as he lays pale fingers over the lower half of Naruto's stomach. The blonde twitches slightly in his state of unconsciousness, and mumbles something incoherent, as one does in the middle of a high fever.

It's not really helping anything.

His fingers brush lower and lower until they touch the top of Naruto's trouser waist band and the Uchiha hesitates. He gathers the rest of his nerves and slides his thumb underneath it, just a _fraction_. He tries to ignore the half of his brain that is screaming at him how unbelievably kinky the whole thing is, whilst the other half in clumsy determination grates itself to finish what he has started.

Eyes squeezed shut, not _daring_ to move any lower he rubs the digit of his thumb in a smooth circle on the skin down there, keeping firmly to the far right: he can't feel anything except burning flesh, and so very slowly he moves a little lower. Barely a centimetre until the pad brushes against something above the skin, soft like cotton.

Sasuke jerks his hand out from Naruto's trousers as though stung by a wasp, and opening his eyes catches sight of himself in the mirror. He considers the simple fact that he could probably fry several large eggs on his face right now if he really dared to try.

After removing Naruto's last articles of outdoor clothing- which Sasuke discovers is actually quite hard when you're trying to do it with your eyes closed and your hands trying desperately to _not touch anything important_- he mutters something dripping with sarcasm, as he actually has to wipe his brow. He had had to wrestle Naruto's trousers off his legs and feet, before, in his flustered state, he'd seen the sense in removing the shoes.

He has to admit to himself, he hadn't really thought it through a hundred percent.

_// Not that he had wanted to in the **first place **anyway. // _

He acrimoniously throws the covers over the blonde and fights the urge to shuffle sheepishly out of the room and wash his skin with bleach.

Instead he goes down to the kitchen, rifles through several draws for a clean dishtowel and opens the freezer- to his great misfortune, as the frozen contents proceed to rain down on him. Sasuke glares inwardly at the mocking feeling of deja-vu. Showering his skin are frozen peas and a square block of ice that looks as though it might contain a dead fish.

Later, when Sasuke is quite sure he's suppressed the god-awful-scream that threatened to skewer his system and rise through his lungs at realisation of just _what_ had been in that ice block, he trudges back into Naruto's room. He thrusts the iced towel onto the Kitsune's forehead, dumps a bucket of ice by his bed, sits down heavily in the middle of the floor, flops backwards; and considers what on earth to do next.

_// Sick people are supposed to eat right? Make him something to eat, and make yourself something to eat while you're at it. //_

Sasuke closes his eyes, kneading his forehead with his knuckle, and gives a long suffering exhalation of breath. One flaw with this brilliant plan: he can't cook… anything. Well this is a lie, he _can_ cook toast, but he burns it until it's almost inedible. Naruto needs something at least resembling vegetables and some kind of protein and complex carbohydrates, he figures. He can't do that, and he out right, point blank, _thrust the gun against my forehead_, refuses to give him that instant Ramen nonsense he happens to know Naruto has hidden underneath the sink… piles of it. He drums his fingers against the floorboards and meditates. So, he can't cook. Naruto cannot move, let alone cook.

Sasuke's stomach makes a mournful, rumbling sound.

There is a simple solution to this really, Sasuke decides, getting to his feet and brushing off his hands as he walks out of the door. Get someone else to cook for you.

* * *

There is steam coming up from the backroom that wafts delicious, succulent and tempting out into the front of the shop and seating area. A few customers are sitting on stools, chatting and eating their full bowls of noodles, soup, meat and vegetables. The head chief is leaning on the counter, chatting to a long time customer. He cleans his greasy hands on the front of his apron as he converses, one elbow propped up on the smooth wood:

"Oh yes, had them here for years now. Funny thing went very quite that way about two weeks ago, spooked people I heard. Like the whole island disappeared, huge great hole I was told appeared about five miles west of there as if someone had carved a great scoop out of the earth."

A man in his fifties with long grey hair over a fierce face that is streaked with red paint, looks up interestedly up at this. He peers over the top of the book he is reading, slurping a great mouthful of noodles.

The phone rings on the wooden wall behind the chief who yells over his shoulder for Yumi. A pretty girl in her early twenties emerges from the kitchen, bringing out swathes of steam with her. Short, dark, curly hair in her eyes and piled on top of her head, she picks up the phone in one hand and a notebook and pencil with her other. She pulls a face as she balances the phone on her shoulder and prepares herself to write at the same time:

"Ichiraku, how can I help you?"

Jiraiya goes back to his book and eating as the subject turns to the weather, keeping an eye on the girl out of the corner of eye: he likes the way she stands, feet firmly planted apart, confident position.

"Now… is that two or three servings you're asking for, sir? …Oh I see, you're not sure how much he eats. May I ask if you're going to eat as well? …What would I recommend? What do you usually like to eat? …No I'm afraid I've never heard of that. No spices? And… you don't like sour, not too salty either… Okay, something bland then for you? Alright I'll put you down for Shio soup Ramen then shall I? Oh! …Alright, one of everything- are you very sure? Deliver to where? …Oh …OH! That's Naruto's apartment, isn't it?"

Everybody turns round and looks at her as she grins: "Yes, we make deliveries there all the time, don't worry. I could make it there blind folded. Fast? Absolutely." she winks at the chief, who smiles fondly at the receiver as she puts it down.

"So he's alive then is he?" the chief rumbles, readjusting his hat. "He hasn't been in here for a little over a month," he tells the restaurant in general. "We were all starting to worry he'd fallen off the face of the earth!"

Jiraiya flips another page of the book he's reading and finishes his bowl.

"Lady friend was it, ordering for him?" continues the chief.

Yumi grins as she puts the pad and paper back in her pocket. "Guy actually, didn't recognise the voice, apparently Naruto _couldn't get to the phone_."

A stunned silence falls, and Jiraiya, suddenly interested all over again, peers over the top of the book, grinning from ear to ear.

The chief laughs, and then he whistles: "Was it indeed? Young devil, you'll just have to go see and report back here and tell us- won't she?" he asks the customers, all of which nod and some applaud.

Well, thinks Jiraiya, pushing away the empty bowl and standing up to leave. This just became all very interesting all of a sudden. He chuckles to himself and leaves the waitress a tip. Interesting enough to maybe, drop a look in on….

* * *

**A/N**

I want to say thank you to my reviewers, I did take on the advice of switching between tenses, and I apologise if that was annoying. I had no idea I did that, I hope this chapter is all in one tense (checks) It should be...

Now, I feel I am compelled to show you a review that really peeved me off, and I am sorry to hold it up as an example but I have to express my disgust at it:

_"ok!! im not even going to continue reading this. this is your first part of ur fanfic corrected._

_There was a slight film of dirt covering Naruto Uzamaki's skin as he licked his dried lips and brushed strands of hair away from his his sunlight bright blue eyes.  
He sat up in the crook of a huge branch running parallel to the ground, blood rushing hard and fast in his ears as he peered down behind a curtain of leaves...etc_

_ok--  
you wrote in present tense. Your supposed to use past tense.. present sounds funny and i think you used it wrong.. yea well you also kinda go back and forth from present tense to past tense. it makes ur story make no sence.. you also sometimes repeat what you said but in different ways.. there is no need for that.. and i dont mean your describing it more.. i mean your just being repeatitive..  
plz take the time to fix further mistakes(and edit things i fixed if you dont like.. plz dont be offended by my comment.. im just trying to help.. if you are going to edit this and need help email me at_

_-- Emily"_

Here is what the actual extract says: _'There's a slight film of dirt covering Naruto Uzamaki's skin as he licks his dried lips and brushes strands of hair sunlight bright out of wide inquisitive eyes. _

_He's sitting high up in the crook of a huge branch running parallel to the ground, blood rushing hard and fast in his ears as he peers down behind a curtain of leaves.'_

Now, I can accept criticism of my work, and my style to an -extent- but this, this was just **rude**, quite clearly by the fact you dare to mock me by putting a 'contact me at: **BLANK** that this is a flame and you are too afraid to leave your email so I can reply to it. This is a shame because I would have been nicer about it if you had. The fact is, what really got at me was the corrected version. It doesn't hold the same meaning, or even SOUND as good as the original does. Oh, and your corrections on my grammar (Failing Mentally you are wonderful with your grammar tips, please keep giving them to me, they are a wonderful help and anyone else for that matter who did it constructively) well sorry, but as my good friend puts it: 'when they started griping about "lolzl i didnt read the rest of it cuz yer teneses sucxor."i was like "wtf."' Yes, well you see my point, I know I slip up, but I think I can use the present tense to write with thank you very much. After all, things **do** happen in the present now don't they? And my repetition, if I say things twice, but differently every time, then it's NOT the same thing is it then? It's part of my style and a technique used by wonderful and well known authors such as Diana Wynne-Jones and Agatha Christie, so don't give me that crap, of course it's done on purpose, I happen to ENJOY using it. I happen to feel it makes the reader think a bit more. Also, I have a beta darling, and she's great okay? So when things are double checked, they are double checked.

(Takes a deep breath out) can you at least see where I am coming from with this? It's not like I'm going to cry and slit my wrists or KILL OFF A CHARACTER BECAUSE IT HAS MADE ME SOOO ANGRY AND YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE!! But just...why would you think I would want to read this crappy attempt at a flame? At least leave me your email so I can anihilate you for god sakes.

To everyone else, thank you and goodnight!

(P.S review? Please???? I'm 18 soon, think of it as a birthday present to me x3 )


	7. Beautiful Madness

**Fish Bird**

**By The Eternity Dragon**

**Disclaimer:** Dear Kishimoto, if I owned Naruto Sasuke would be gay, well, sorry, gay-er that is, then you have made him already.

Apart from liberating him from the closet or proverbial barrel that you stuck him in, I could also eliminate the possibility of SasuSaku from ever...ever happening. Naruto is already Sasuke's bitch so I have no argument with you there. Yours sincerely, E.D

**p.s** Dear Naurto Shippuden animators, did you always intend on declaring SasuNaru as openly cannon in the very first episode, or were you literally just waiting for Sasuke to throw him the ah...towel?

**Chapter 7: **Beautiful Madness

**BETA'D VERSION- **_MANY THANKS TO PENGUINSTEPS AND MIYUN FOR THE CUTTING AND GRAMMAR NAZI PATROL! (-weeps internally at the then and than division-)_

Enjoy!

* * *

Yumi takes a detour on route to Naruto's apartment. The sky is just getting dark and the cicadas are chirping as she heaves the bags over one shoulder and then the other. She's curious as to who was the caller on the phone and jumps across the cracks in the pavement, tucking some stray strands of curling brown hair behind her ear. The moon is rising just beyond the mountain as she makes it towards the twirling steps that lead up to the apartment on the fourth floor.

_It's a nice place this apartment,_ Yumi thinks, as she runs her hands across the iron-railing bar. _Poor Naruto though, living here all alone, waiting for his Sakura-chan to come back… or not come back as the case may be._

She'd heard rumours that they'd had an argument just before Sakura had left. Something about marriage, a friend had told her. Yumi personally had never been able to stand Sakura much: all that short strawberry hair, green eyes and that _attitude_. But regardless, Naruto had been besotted with her ever since Yumi had known him.

Silly boy. Very silly boy. Yumi however was one of many basing views on the relationship on general gossip.

Other people younger than her, found the blue eyed, blonde haired wonder attractive- especially after he grew out of that annoying habit of saying "Believe it!" every two and a half seconds.

Yumi jogs up the last steps and stands on the welcome mat, punching the doorbell. She has this funny feeling she's being followed, but every time she turns her head to check, she's corrected. Although on one occasion she did see a wisp of trailing white hair disappearing behind a building… but she assumed it to be the neighbour's small terrier dog.

A few seconds later she hears someone clatter down the stairs and skid into the hallway.

"Delivery!" she calls through the door, and out of habit she runs three fingers through her dark curls and licks her lips in apprehension of the mysterious character inside Naruto's apartment.

The door opens and Yumi holds both bags in front of her, opening her mouth to chant the accustomed: "Ichiraku, thank you very much! We look forward to doing business with you again!"

…But she only gets over the first few syllables of 'Ichiraku,' so it sounds more like "I-chi-u-_huh_?" as someone with beautiful dark hair that sweeps across his face, a slim dark figure and pale skin, like torn ivory, bleeding contradiction up to almond shaped and slanted ebony eyes.

The young man places some money in one of her stunned outstretched hands and then, from within the doorway, reaches out for the Ramen bags.

Yumi's mind whirrs, fizzles and calculates. She never forgets a face, not one as distinctive as this, and as the young man's eyes reluctantly meet hers, the truth dawns.

"Uchiha…" she stammers and takes three short steps backwards, "Sasuke Uchiha!" Yumi's voice rises into a short strangled scream.

An S-level criminal! What the hell was he…? Had he killed Naruto? What was he doing here!? God was he going to **kill her? **

"I-urgh," the man burbles, giving her an alarmed look as if something very obvious has just dawned on him. He looks a little sick as she points a finger at him and screams:

"**What have you done to Naruto? Why are you here? Everyone said you were dead!"**

The young man swallows. If possible his skin turns even paler as Yumi drops the Ramen bags and prepares to pelt down the stairs.

"I- **I'm not Sasuke Uchiha!**" he yells at her, panicking at the ruckus she has begun to make, eyes darting left and right to see if she had caused any of the neighbours to peer curiously out of their bedroom windows.

"**I JUST LOOK LIKE HIM!**"

Yumi stares at him, dumbfounded at the top of the stairs, murmurs, "Oh _right_…" not without her own ample dash of sarcasm, and flees down the spiralling steps. Her footsteps clang and clatter, and then echo into the gathering darkness before they fade out altogether.

"Oh _shit_," mutters Sasuke Uchiha, leaning grumpily against the doorpost. The Ramen bags have been dumped no less then half a meter away from Naruto's front door. Tentatively he pokes his little finger half a millimetre outside the boundary, and snarls as the condensation of blue sparks descends painfully on the tip.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

* * *

If he ever thought before that he had done something ridiculous, this must surely bake the cake and eat it too, Sasuke judges moodily. His ears are burning with the very indignity of it. "Just wait!" he mutters, "just wait until Naruto wakes up. I'll kill him!"

He jams his back in harder against the lintel of the doorpost, giving the umbrella another aggressive swing; finally catching the food bags by their plastic handle loops.

_//Hah! Victory…. //_

With a careful tug the bags come sliding across the smooth wooden walkway and Sasuke prays that no one on the street below is watching him doing… doing whatever the hell _this is_.

_//Fishing for Ramen with an umbrella, that's what//_

With his luck, Sasuke imagines it likely someone in the apartment opposite is leaning out their window, binoculars in hand and incredulous gawping expression on their face, like a wet fish. And Sasuke's had enough of that expression for one day.

As soon as the bags are over the lintel of Naruto's front door he drags them fiercely inside and slams the door shut. A little too vigorously as some of the paint cracks and falls onto the welcome mat, only to be snarled at before the Uchiha turns and stomps (there really is no other way to describe it) all the way up the stairs and into Naruto's bedroom. He forgets he's still holding the umbrella in his left hand like a sword, and swinging the plastic bags as if they are bludgeons.

As the door opens Naruto shifts and rises into consciousness as the dream he's been having bursts. His head feels as though it's made of cotton wool and his tongue rasps like sandpaper over the roof of his mouth. He winces painfully as Sasuke brings light into the room with him, standing for a fraction of a second in the archway, and Naruto thinks its an almost nervous expression that lingers there for a moment.

Ideas and thoughts begin to bubble in his mind, linking with memories. Wait, hadn't they just been arguing? Not that that was new… but **outside**, in the hallway? And then later down the stairs? Why was he in here? Semi-naked? …and in… in Sasuke Uchiha's bed?

Naruto scrambled head ringing like a bell, to get up and out of the covers: but finds himself cornered and almost speared on the end of an umbrella - a purple umbrella at that. It looked suspiciously like the one downstairs in his umbrella stand.

"Don't you dare," the Uchiha growls down at him, dark eyes glimmering but cheeks retaining a blush of pale pink, as though he's flustered about something.

The umbrella pushes him unmercifully in the chest, backwards and downwards, and Naruto - facing umbrella skewering - meekly complies.

As he licks his lips tentatively and backs down, cornflower blue eyes slightly glassy and somewhat bleary, he asks in a cracked voice:

"How-how did I get in here?"

Sasuke puts the umbrella down and dumps the plastic bags on the dresser, tossing black hair out of smoky grey eyes. He fiddles in the bags for something and a delicious smell fills the room. Naruto sits up, feeling suddenly better. He knows that smell. Oh, he knows that smell certainly- Ramen!

"You're hungry right?" Sasuke asks him, ignoring the question, and gives the baffled blonde a raised eyebrow as if to say 'Yes moron, this is real'.

It's a funny thing to consider a bowl of Ramen as a peace offering, especially when Sasuke Uchiha is holding it just out of reach, and the tempting aroma is wafting over you in delicious waves. Naruto unconsciously follows it with his eyes, his mouth watering on reflex.

Sasuke thrusts the plastic container at him. "Take it," he says bluntly and breaks the chopsticks apart before he hands them to Naruto.

The Kitsune accepts unhesitatingly, and proceeds to stuff his face with the noodles and soup. Within seconds the bowl is empty and Sasuke is pulling out another one and handing it to the blonde. All for the contents to be hoovered up in a matter of seconds. Sasuke has to fight hard to suppress the smile that's trying to creep it's way up to his lips.

"You're an idiot," he can't help saying as he pulls open a portion for himself and sits down on the floor to eat. Naruto just gives him a grin as he swallows down a huge bite of noodles.

"Ichiraku right? It's so good!"

"There's more in the bags if you're still hungry after eating all that." Sasuke watches, chopsticks hovering against his lips, as the Uzumaki tilts the bowl to his lips and ingests the contents with a faint gurgling sound. Sasuke looks away and forces himself to regain some appetite.

The recently unconscious blonde leans over and fiddles around in the bags, pulling out one dish after the other, a gleeful expression on his face like a child receiving Christmas presents.

"God Sasuke, there's a lot," is the gracious comment Sasuke receives after Naruto has placed meal number twelve on the floor and is picking out thirteen and fourteen. "I know you think I'm a pig, but there's only so much even a pig can eat."

Sasuke quietly chews the contents of the salty noodles in his mouth, swallowing after the twenty-sixth chew exactly before he answers: "I didn't know what type you liked. I'm hardly an expert on Ramen. I just asked for one of everything."

Naruto chokes halfway through swallowing something and puts the bowl down on the dresser (not caring for marking the woodwork, despite the fact that Sasuke winces when he does it.) He slams a closed fist into his chest before spluttering out:

"What? You mean Kiba or Shikamaru didn't… they aren't downstairs?"

The incomprehensible look is back again and Sasuke feels his spine bristle slightly under his flesh.

_// What, am I not good enough for you then//_

"No, nobodies downstairs."

"Not even Hinata?" Naruto asks desperately blinking those damned wide cornflower blue eyes as if Hinata doesn't count as a full person to Sasuke.

The expression he is presented with is not un-akin to someone sucking lemons as icy sarcasm floats back to the surface; Sasuke rolls his eyes: "Well if you'd like to check…."

"But- but!" stammers Naruto, looking pained, then frantic and then aghast and all very suddenly, he runs his hands through his blonde hair, ironing out the tangled sunlight gold tresses.

"Who opened the door then? Who took the delivery?"

Sasuke's expression immediately switches to something Naruto fathoms to be agitation, and the dark haired youth visibly flushes. Looking down at the floor, he blinks before quickly recovering himself, and admitting in a half sheepish tone of voice that doesn't suit him: "I did."

_// Well, it wasn't exactly the brightest idea was it//_

The words drop and roll as he watches Naruto bring his fingers up to his eye sockets, pressing his lids shut and murmur between the forefinger and thumb: "Oh God, no, you didn't."

"Yes I did," Sasuke snaps back, cheeks flushing darker. It's embarrassing to admit that he's stung by Naruto throwing the gesture right back in his face. "What else was I supposed to do? Give her the money through the letter box and tell her to leave it on the side walk?"

"She?" Naruto sat up straighter and leans over the side of the bed to look down at the other, trails of yellow flopping round to curtain the sides of his face in tangled wisps. "A girl about… this high? Dark curly hair? Kind of oval shaped face?" he made a gesture with his hands trying to re-enact her.

Sasuke gives an almost invisible nod and watches with apprehension as Naruto's expression sort of falls and then looks close to tears:

"It was Yumi, wasn't it? She saw you, didn't she? Oh Sasuke!"

He flops backwards, and the Uchiha is filled with the crushing feeling of absolute conviction that he's let him down.

"She's the biggest gossip I've ever met. That's _even _including Ino. Really nice, but… oh why? Why did you do it? They'll all know! It would have been better if you had just let me starve to death! This is exactly the sort of thing that old hag Tsunade warned me _not_ to let you go and do… **or else**…. I mean no one else is supposed to know about this, and, oh SHIT. I just don't understand you; do you not want another shot at all of this? They wanted to kill you, you know. The council did, didn't think it was worth the risk to see if you'd come round again and maybe behave yourself. Missing S-class, left and took the secrets of Konoha with him! They thought that you had the potential to go… to go mad like your brother did and just kill everyone and no one would be able to stop you. Tsunade argued for _hours_ about it, and so did Shikamaru Nara, do you remember him? I think he hates your guts but he vouched for you- they like him because he's got a great record and he's nearly always right. He thought it would be an injustice to kill you just because that you _might_ go and do what Itachi did; and that in your condition there was no real threat. And even then, they were all for an underground cell with ANBU surveillance twenty four-seven and white walls and sterile ceilings and drips for god sakes, with needles! Is that what you want Sasuke? Is it?!"

Somehow they were close now, the Kitsune's eyes crinkling in the corners as he continued to rant despairingly, arms moving up and down and up and down as his mouth depressed even more as time went on. The lead balled pit in Sasuke's stomach seemed to grow even heavier, if it were possible.

"I-no-I mean-I didn't-" Sasuke tries to interject between Naruto's furious yells of: "She's going to tell everyone!" and "Oh god, we are in _so much shit!_"

"Look, I'm **SORRY** all right?" Sasuke suddenly bursts out, grabbing Naruto by both of his wrists and yanking him forwards so that their noses bump painfully against each other.

They both look thoroughly shocked by it, and Naruto's whole body seems to calm as he falls onto his knees off the bed, absolutely stoic as he simply stares at Sasuke, his mouth very slightly parted as he sucks down air.

Sasuke Uchiha stares back at him for a moment, determined, steady gaze but not without his fair share of embarrassment. He drops Naruto's wrists as if they have scolded his pale skin and looks again at the floor. Jet-black hair shields his face so the Kitsune can't read the expression; Naruto just continues to gape at him, taken back.

"I-uh…you're _what?!?!_" he sputters, allowing his arms to fall to his sides. He tilts his head, already close to Sasuke's, even closer, so he can almost feel every little shudder the body makes when it breathes in and out. The Uchiha meets his eyes again, a hot look. He'd rather bite off his own tongue then say it again.

"You heard me," he says bluntly, stubborn jaw locked, as if willing Naruto to choke on the word too… but he owed him the word at least. Then again he owed Naruto a lot of things he's never going to admit to.

They both look away simultaneously in opposite directions, both horribly aware that something rare and mysterious has just occurred.

// Sasuke Uchiha just apologized to me… to me! I didn't even know it was possible for those words to cross his lips without him turning into stone! The universe is still moving; the world hasn't been sucked down into the atomic abyss of a swirling black hole. //

Naruto takes a deep breath and wiggles his feet. "What did she say when she saw you?" he asks, keeping his face turned carefully to the wall.

"She- well…first she screamed, and then she sort of… backed off and ran away." Sasuke admits, with a slight tilt of his head.

Naruto can't help the quick burst of laughter that bubbles from his lips at this statement. He grins to the air, and feels Sasuke bristle behind him.

"You caused a girl to go screaming in the opposite direction from you? At sight? I think that must be a world first, don't you think Sasuke?"

Sasuke, whose fingers are fiddling absently with the chopsticks on his knees, says in a sarcastic tone of voice that Naruto is wonderfully comfortable with: "Well, I am talking to the expert here on that, aren't I?" And he catches the blue eyed youths expression as it splits into a wide grin and response the of "Touché." The youth smirks and Sasuke grunts, shaking his head.

Naruto pushes the food bowl towards Sasuke and gets up to put some clothes on. He wanders for a moment back into his own room where the enraged cry of "This is **not my** mess!" can easily be heard through the wood panelling, as well at the clicking he makes with his tongue as he inspects the floor boards they broke earlier.

He pokes his head round the door again, slightly frowning, dusting splinters from his hands. "I'll speak to Tsunade about it tomorrow," he mumbles and looks speculatively at Sasuke, gnawing at his bottom lip. "I suppose it _would_ be a bit of a tall story to swallow."

"Very tall," Sasuke agrees, "seeing how I've been gone for seven years. Besides, I never knew her- I've never even seen her before."

"Yeah," replies Naruto, sitting opposite Sasuke on the floor and allowing himself to get comfortable in the jeans and white t-shirt he was now wearing. The Uchiha eyes the clothes from between a mouthful of noodles and prays Naruto won't ask him how the other set came off in the first place. The only excuse he can come up with involves raccoons, and somehow he doubts even Naruto would swallow it.

"But she knew you though. Everyone always did. Especially the girls, and that my friend is the difference."

"Well it was annoying, whatever the hell it was. Following me everywhere, hassling me when I didn't even know who they were. Let alone care."

"You could have been polite to them at least, all they wanted was some of your attention, Sasuke."

"Huh!" followed by a disgusted snort, and then "Why the hell should I have been attentive? It was their fantasy not mine. I couldn't have cared less if they lived or died."

Naruto let out a stifled sort of sound, stuck out his tongue over the tip of his lips, withdrew it back again and let his face crumple into a small frown as he watched Sasuke very slowly consume the rest of the bowl.

"You're always like that," he said eventually with some substantial bitterness that surprised himself. "Everyone acknowledged and accepted you, and you never ever seemed grateful for it. You threw it all away in the end. When I was younger I wou-" but he bit his lower lip before he could finish the sentence, for fear of admitting to Sasuke that he had had wanted nothing more then to be like him. How he would have given up anything for that dream. A dream to be a person that everything came so easily to: love, strength, admiration and empathy. When had he ever had that without pushing for it until the stubs of his fingers bled and he could hardly move but to drag himself across the floor?

Sasuke noted the bitterness in Naruto's blue eyes, the way he had drawn his knees up to his chest, one arm encircling the other under his chin. He waits until he's full before he decides to answer. He finds his own voice to be icy cold.

"Do you think I ever wanted all that attention? All those expectations? It almost drove me mad. Whatever I did there was a certain standard I had to achieve; ever since the second I was born. I had to be better than everyone else. I was an Uchiha, I had standards to maintain and a future I had to succeed in. I was never free; you at least had the option of doing what you wanted, when you wanted to."

"I don't let people control me," Naruto bites back, his voice firm and level. But there's something dark in the way he opens his mouth to say it, pink tongue touching the brilliant white of his teeth. It feels like there's a secret he's holding back.

"Neither do I," Sasuke responds, eyes narrowed, and unconsciously his spine straightens.

"Yes you do, you always have done Sasuke. Ever since I first met you although I didn't realise it at first. But you're like a hand puppet, acting on someone else's actions, your whole existence governed by someone else."

Sasuke really is unbearably furious now. His hands are shaking as he keeps them folded in his lap, and he clenches his fingers over each other and lets the nails bare down into the skin. The pain relieves the pressure in his voice somewhat as he responds in low dangerous tones: "He killed my mother and father, my clan, my happiness and most of my soul. Of course I'm going to kill him. If not just for my sake then for theirs!"

"By any means possible then?" There is something carnal about the way in which Naruto says this, a look of a wild animal in his eyes, infinitely distrusting and savagely beautiful.

To Sasuke it feels as if he's raising invisible hackles along his back. But he won't allow himself to be dragged down into an argument about morals, when he knows Naruto is lumping his own set of values onto him.

"And what would you have done? Rolled over and played nice so people would simper and smile over you and scratch your stomach! Don't make me _sick_ Naruto. I did what I had to do!"

"Yeah you did!" Naruto snarls back at him just as venomously as Sasuke feels but won't let show on his face. "You stabbed everyone in the back who cared about you and lov-"

Sasuke interrupts, hot tongue in contrasting volition with his brain, which orders him to stop this right now: "This is not about **you** and you **_sycophantic need _**to recreate a nice cosy happy family around you. For God Sakes, how old are you? Do us all a favour and just GROW UP!"

It's a low blow, but it's at the very core of the matter, and its effect is instantaneous. Naruto withdraws like a wilting flower, body becoming defensive, shoulders drawn up around his ears as he speaks to his knees.

"You had parents, you knew what it was like to have unconditional love, that no matter what, or how much you went for something - even for those few years- someone believed in you. Someone was always there. They were there when you were afraid, they were there to encourage you and tell you that you were worth something. Even when… even when you felt like you weren't. When-" his voice became a little hoarser and he refused to meets the Uchiha's hard, direct gaze.

"When you're born into a world where people seem to hate you for no fathomable reason. When there seems to be an invisible fence between you and happiness. When no one thinks you are worth Jack Shit, no matter how hard you try, and when you are assured almost constantly that you are in fact worthless, that you'd be better off dead, because guess what? You are the thing that killed your parents and God knows who else and what else. When that happens to you Sasuke Uchiha, you can call me immature then. But forgive me for thinking you sound like a pampered brat when I ask you why it would be unnatural for me to want to be with somebody who at least at the end of the day won't recoil if I touch them and tell them that I love them? Or am I not _worthy_ enough to deserve human affection?"

"So that's what Sakura is to you then?" Sasuke blurts out, not quite sure if it's any of his business or even relevant. He just knows that his voice has a bitter edge to it that he tries to swallow down and almost gags on. His stomach burns with indignation at how important Sakura probably is to Naruto, not that anyone could blame him for it, but that's not the point. He's still angry about it.

Naruto tilts his head at this odd question and glares at Sasuke, incredulous.

"I love Sakura, you arrogant prick. I love her more then I think I've ever loved anyone else. She's stuck by me and through all of this insane shit, through all of it, she's still here and she- she-"

"Accepts you?"

"Yes, yes she does!" Naruto shouts back at him, furious that Sasuke could simplify it to such an extent.

"And because she does so you've decided to spend the rest of your life with her because you believe that she's the only one who's got the stomach for it."

Naruto's face is a portrait of incredulity and angry bewilderment.

"She loves me Sasuke, no one has ever done that before."

"Or you think she's the only one that's ever loved you, and you've never even considered the fact that other people might have loved you too? Except maybe they expressed it differently?"

Naruto swallows. "Sasuke," he asks, "what exactly are you saying?"

Sasuke Uchiha blinks, lets out a long heated exhalation of breath before he admits that he has no idea, and then adds, "You always leap for the obvious choices."

Naruto replies, suddenly calmly: "When you've had nothing, you tend to grab onto what you can see right in front of you and never let go."

"Is that what you are doing with me then?"

Naruto falls back against the bed at this and regards the dark eyed, pale skinned man sitting directly across from him almost languidly. "I find myself wondering if you actually enjoy being alone; and it's not just something you do because you're actually afraid of letting people in."

Nothing for an instant, and then, with a short brittle reply: "Nobody likes being alone."

Naruto scowls at him, giving a probing, wandering look. "Then why do you insist on-"

"Because-" Sasuke snaps, pushing away from Naruto and jerking his head back to expose his neck, hot and flushed. He hated being truthful about things like this, and yet somehow he found himself unable to lie about it. It was those damned blue eyes, infinitely wide and trusting, they seemed to call out and drag on the deep rigid recesses of his soul and hold it under the light for examination. Killing him softly with gentle words and open arms.

"…Because it's easier then letting people down. Because I might have forgotten how to let people in, and because I'm afraid-" but he bites down on his tongue and brings up blood; he'd choke on his own flesh first before he actually admitted to himself, let alone Naruto, that breaking those barriers might mean the end of him. That if he let someone in he'd become dependant on them, and if he lost them… if he lost it all again, lost someone dear and precious to him, he'd go mad.

Honestly, truly, absolutely.

He'd just loose it.

To be fooled once, to let it happen… shame on them.

But to be fooled twice? …Shame on you. He'd have no one to blame but himself.

"You think you're afraid of being alone, Naruto?" Sasuke grinds out from between his back molars, choking on the blood, wishing he didn't have to compete against that innocently bright blue focus.

"Everyday I realise," he continues, "the fact that I am probably going to die alone, somewhere far, far away from the place I was born and grew up in. Miles away, _lives_ away from the people I loved and cared about, and no one will know or even give a damn. You think you _were_ alone? Well, I _am_ alone Naruto Uzumaki, and I can't help that. It's just the way things have to be."

"You don't have-" he began, but Sasuke cuts him off not wanting to hear it. Prizing and holding Naruto's hands to either side of his head and shaking him lightly so he should understand and hear it properly this time:

"But I will, and you can't change that. I'll die alone, without any family that I care to speak of, friends or… lovers. Because I am an Av-"

"So no one will miss you? Is that what you really think?! Don't you think that I'd miss you in every single one of those ways?" his fingers scrabble at the place where Sasuke is firmly holding his wrists in place and looks indignantly back at him.

"You're not my lover, Naruto." Sasuke states this flatly; watching as the blonde colours, snub nose dusting with a light sprinkling of pink flush.

"I know I'm not your lover in… that sense. But I'm probably the closest thing to it right now. Don't you think I'd miss you if you did something as stupid as to die all alone like that? You were the closest thing I ever had to a brother and a best friend."

"Was Naruto, past tense."

"Well that doesn't stop me from still feeling it, does it Sasuke? Up until your last living breath I'll hate you and love you, regardless of whether you feel anything for me at all! Until the second that I die I'll still feel it, and I'll never forget you. And in death-" he gulped, "it will be just the same, but eternal."

"Well, you're a fool then."

"I know I am Sasuke. I always was more of a fool when it came to you then I ever was for anyone else. I was so desperate to impress you, to try and get you to acknowledge me. I wasted a lot of energy obsessing over you."

There is a silence, in which they sit close, almost on top of each other. Naruto no longer fighting Sasuke's restraints, they seem to breathe and feel at the same time, and then it comes: "…Why are you telling me this?" Sasuke murmurs curiously, without breathing.

"Because, if you do slip away again- when you do go after Itachi again as I know you will do-" Sasuke opens his mouth to interrupt, but Naruto presses on. It's important to say it. It's important to let him know.

"He was always more important than I was, and he always will be in your eyes. I can't change that, but you'll know. You'll know that somewhere, somehow I'm here, willing you alive, and wishing you'd come back- come back to what you've left behind."

_//To me, come back to me…. //_

Sasuke just looks at him with an unfathomable expression. Burgundy lips slightly parted but not in sound, the tongue darts out and wets them so they glisten slightly as Naruto watches. Is it in astonishment that he's looking at him like that? Or perhaps confusion?

"I think I'll always want you back Sasuke Uchiha."

There isn't very much he can say to that, as he looks down at his knees, a little flustered and a little confused, He drops Naruto's wrists very slowly, which he had been holding gently against the sides of his neck, now unsure of where to look and how to respond.

"Thank you." he says, and feels the blonde peering at him. He's thankful for the two curtains of hair either side of his face as he blushes, for what seems the umpteenth time that evening.

Nothing happens for moment, but the intensity pulses and stretches between them like electricity before Naruto breaks away. His hands touching Sasuke's for an instant. An accidental movement, forefingers touching his thumb and tracing the back of his knuckles before contact is lost and the tiny warmth is withdrawn.

Out of reflex, he looks up and after Naruto who moves across the room and stands for a moment in the doorway.

"Uzumaki," he asks haltingly not sure why it matters, why he feels he needs to know what Naruto is doing, where Naruto is going and what Naruto is thinking. "Where are you going?"

The Kitsune gives him an inquisitive look, the expressive mouth firm and almost doubting. "Downstairs, I was going to go sleep on the sofa, 'cause my rooms a total tip." He gave that easy, 'it's not problem' smile and started to head out of the door.

"Wait!" Sasuke scrambles in an oddly clumsy motion to his feet. He feels out of sync and breathless: "You should sleep in here idiot, it's your house! And it's probably my fault that you got sick in the first place, I'll sleep on the sofa."

"I don't think you'd want to," Naruto replies softly and he runs his hands over the tops of his arms to his elbows. "You won't be able to move your neck come morning, the springs you see, they stick out and are pretty darn painful."

They stare at each other for another moment, and then Sasuke, slowly as though he's encroaching on something that's a forbidden taboo, starts the sentence that Naruto finishes:

"You can…"

"…Sleep in here?"

* * *

'So now you're sleeping together?' the nasty little voice in his head jibes, as it prods and pokes Naruto with tiny, cold, invisible fingers.

"I'm not sleeping **'sleeping'**with him," Naruto insists to the bathroom mirror as he brushes his teeth. "I happen to be sharing the same bed as him, that's all. And you know something, he probably wears shoes and socks to bed anyway. So I don't know why you're making such a big fuss about it."

His reflection looks unimpressed, and Naruto, gulping guiltily, accidentally swallows the last of the toothpaste and sticks his head underneath the taps, noisily glugging down water. When he remerges, hair sopping wet and plastered to his forehead, he once again glowers at his mirror image before eventually bursting out furiously: "Look, nothing is going to happen alright? And even if it did, who would know?"

The answer comes back to him, sickeningly swift as he reaches over to turn off the light and dry his hands on the towel:

'God will know, and so will you.'

Naruto grimaces, showing all of his teeth. If God was going to know, he could be sure Kiba and Shikamaru would not be very far behind him.

* * *

"Okay," Sasuke reiterates very slowly. He has that look on his face, the deeply foreboding look of someone who has proposed something that they do not quite like or have not thought through properly.

"This is my side, got that block-head? You don't put so much as a toe over onto this side of the mattress. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto nods, wide-eyed and slightly fearful. He had forgotten quite how pedantic the dark haired youth could sometimes be, especially now, as he stands at the end of the bed clad in a simple cotton t-shirt over loose shorts, with his two index fingers pointing at the four poster and repeating at Naruto several times over: "My side. Your side. You got that?"

Naruto nods, simply because he was afraid of what Sasuke might do if he did not. …Probably strangle him with a pair of orange socks he concluded, as he jumps onto the mattress so that everything bounces and the pillows soar into the air.

"Don't do that!" Sasuke shouts at him, watching as Naruto fell back laughing into the covers.

"Can't touch me Sasuke, I'm on _my side_ of the bed!"

"You are such a child," he is told scornfully as Sasuke presents his long slender back to Naruto and sits on the rim of the bed, elegant hands splayed out behind him.

_// I cannot believe we are actually doing this. //_

Naruto props himself up on his elbows as he watches Sasuke move one leg under the covers- he peers at it as it slips cleanly out of view. Well he couldn't see any shoe on his foot or dark knee-long socks. But the idea of Sasuke wearing knee-length socks in any form or manner is slightly ridiculous anyway. The shoes maybe, but not the socks.

"What are you doing?!" Sasuke demands, glaring at Naruto who has of course totally forgotten the meaning of the word discretion, and he swallows air and hiccups in his haste to reply:

"Nothing, nothing at all. Um…" he withers a little underneath the full onslaught of 'The Glare' and asks in a higher pitch then he normally uses, "Shall I turn off the light then?"

Sasuke doesn't say anything.

Taking this as leeway for a polite 'yes,' Naruto jumps out of bed so that everything bounces again, causing the Uchiha to groan in frustration. He makes a clattering journey over to the light switch before killing the light, and an even noisier journey back to the bed again.

Sasuke, as he suspected he might have, has actually stuck his head underneath the pillow rather then listen to the ruckus: hands digging deep into the fluffy endowment of the eiderdown, knuckles clenching almost white as he presses it over his ears.

Naruto can't help chuckling as he gets back into bed again. He would have jumped had it not been for the warning look Sasuke had shot him from underneath the pillow as he prepared to do it. The look had promised disembowelment and a slow and painful death, and Naruto, for once, saw sense enough _not_ to challenge it.

He wriggles around for a moment, trying to find the best possible position in which to sleep, and every time he tosses and turns Sasuke lets out the dramatic sigh of a long suffering person who cannot see the end of this interminable torture.

Finally he rolls onto his stomach, and resting his chin on his folded arms, he opens his mouth:

"Sasuke, can I ask you something?

The person who in the dim gloom is nothing more then a dark and smeary shape groans once again. "If you must, but only one question," he grinds out irately from his back molars.

"I was wondering, you know, earlier? I always meant to ask you at some point but I never got round to it. I always thought you must hav-"

"Naruto," the shape sounded exasperated, "if you've got something to say, say it. If not, shut the hell up and let me get some sleep."

The Kitsune licks his lips, draws in breath and takes the plunge. "When you were younger, not now obviously… but… did you ever… fall in love?"

A brief pause.

"Why does it matter?"

It's the sort of enigmatic response that Naruto suspected he would answer with if he were guarding a secret like that, and he wishes that he could see the expression on Sasuke's face at this moment. Sasuke would have no second thoughts about bluntly denying something he'd never done, even if most people would consider it to be an abnormal thing not to have done.

"Who was it?"

Silence.

And then Sasuke rolls over so Naruto can feel his back facing him, and the covers are pulled away from him.

"Go to sleep Naruto."

"Sasuke, who was it?"

But he's not to expect an answer and neither is he given one. As he lies there on his side of the bed, the question burns within him uncomfortably. He supposes it's because he's curious; he wants to know because it's Sasuke. But even as he slips into a troubled and agitated sleep, a tiny part of him suspects its because he's jealous.

On the other side of the bed Sasuke Uchiha listens to the sounds of Naruto's heavy breathing and light snores. His eyes flicker from the floor to the ceiling as he bites his lower lip and considers the fact the question is more: "Who is it?" than "Who was it?"

* * *

_::He Dreams:: _

_The fox pads silently in amongst the blackness, sharp claws raking the fragile earth and leaving footprints a mile wide in its wake._

_Reverberations pool and collect in Naruto's spine as he lies there feeling the warm wings of a fragile creature flutter past his ear. Or at least it feels like that through the dark muzzy curtains of sleep that cloud his consciousness. Odd incoherent thoughts bubble and merge together into a string of incomprehensible words that twist and whirl on eddies without meaning. _

_The fluttering continues… insect wings maybe? Like those of a dragonfly, crystal clear and rustling as they beat up and down, up and down- more than he could count inside of one infinitesimal second, blurred into the incredible monotony of a shapeless contortion of the air._

_The sound- or is it more of a feeling? It flutters, brushing teasingly against the upturn of the tip of his nose, tickling gently, pulling and rousing his mind and filling his head with a light humming._

_Naruto stirs, moving limbs that seem to be dragged down by lead and weighted with all the oceans. Slowly, achingly, he opens his eyes…_

"_Hey, sleepy," murmurs soothing tones. Well known, they slide across Naruto's back like melted butter and he doesn't have to think._

"_Sakura," he murmurs back. Everything is out of focus and his senses are reeling slightly as he stretches his mind back to recollect what on earth it was he was doing before. But there's nothing there, nothing at all. _

_The back of his mind stays shut, the door bolted and closed for some reason he can't, doesn't understand. There is some old magic lingering around the hinges. Dark red in colour and clotted, it seems to cluster as he probes into it: pushing him out again, back to a conscious state where he can't seem to move his body or open his eyes properly._

_The cool press of fingertips against his temple and then hands around his shoulders, gripping firm and secure, push him onto his back. It's uncomfortable like that. He can't breath properly, his lungs contracting and expanding awkwardly and he tries to tell her. But the words tumble out of his mouth garbled and chewed, so it sounds more like a moan. As if his tongue has been turned to mush and throat rubbed down with sandpaper, he chokes as he tries to form sound and something cool is pushed against his forehead, wet and flopping onto the skin. _

"_I've been gone a long time, haven't I?"_

_The voice is close, somewhere either immediately above him or to his left, he can't quite pinpoint where. But her fingers interlace with his own, and despite the fact that he can't move, despite the fact that he can't quite see, for the first time in a long while he's happy. Happy without trying, without caring: full of a knowledge of being wanted without reason, that being there is just enough for both of them._

"_Hey," he tries to say back to her, but the words are slurred and trip across his mouth and doesn't really sound like anything in particular. _

_There is the sound of her laughter above him, and he wants to reach up and pull her closer, wind his arms around her neck and tell her that he loves her:_

"_I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do…"_

"_You should wake up soon," she tells him simply. He can almost see the expression on her face through all the fuzz: wide green eyes, curling wide lashes and arched, bow like smile._

"_Then you can see it."_

_See? See what?_

_His mind reels as panic bubbles up inside of him, bleeding through his senses, and the press of fingers against his hand becomes much more insistent. He clutches back at them, something solid, something real, desperate to keep a hold. _

_Why can't he open his eyes? Why can't he move?_

_And then he realises, and it washes over him in an icy iron bucket of rusting dread: Something is very, very wrong._

_Naruto's eyes jerk wide open, and his body seemingly contracts and he feels like he's falling into a void whilst Sakura still clutches onto his hand._

"_What's going on?" he asks over the smell of smoke and burning wood, soot clouds his eyes and makes them water. Is the apartment burning down around him? Where is the fire?_

_And then he realises everything is alight, everything is filled with hot orange flames, everything is burning._

_Everything._

_The walls, the bricks, the roof, the ceiling, the building, the street, the roads, the libraries, the shops, the towers, the village… the village is burning like a huge monstrous Katherine wheel, sending up golden glimmers and dancing globular sparks up into the night._

_Smouldering columns of fluted ash whirl skywards in sickeningly fast eddies of hot air, lost in a tundra of stormy grey as the wind blows dry and scorching against his skin._

"_W-hat-how… What's going on?" Sakura's fingers are unnaturally cold inside of his grasp, her flesh **feels** almost transparent, it feels like he's slipping and sliding through her body as he desperately tries to hold on._

"_Don't **you **know?" _

_He doesn't know why the tone of voice fills him with dread. Part of him understands- some innately wise fraction of his mind comprehends it's all over, and slowly, he turns to look over the humming, the distant humming that fills his ears. _

_Her smile is cracked, her green eyes are hollow, like lime marbles. Her hair falls in sticky clumps across madly pale skin and her body- oh god her body- it's broken. Her spine is snapped in two. White silver membrane and nerves dribbling out of the gaping gash that splintered the vertebrae, disconnected from the soul. Neurones and synapses fire from nowhere to nowhere, but with no internal highway system present the body is useless._

_Dead._

"_**SAKURA!**" Naruto yells, heart pounding in his chest as he grips her by the shoulders, not caring for the blood she wretches out of useless sagging lungs._

_The insect wings are back, hundreds upon thousands of them, lights flickering in and out of smoke and flame, bringing dazzling colours into the grey darkness._

_The fox rumbles, low and melodic, infinitely threatening._

_Sakura's hands fumble for a moment, loosing his; they reach up and touch his temple, gracing across his matted locks, and a faint smile appears before she slides out of focus._

_Naruto's mind isn't function properly- he's scrabbling around on his hands and kneecaps, fingers probing into the treacle like gunk that drags and sticks to his limbs as he fumbles in the darkness._

_Sakura's gone. She's gone. Where did she go? She has to still be here. With him. She can't- won't… ever leave him. _

"_What's going on? What's happening? Sakura! Sakura!?" he yells over and over again until his voice is lost, and his oesophagus grates like a razor blade over the muscle of his throat._

_He drops to his knees, sobbing, shaking all over._

"_Who did this?" he chokes out, "I'll kill them. I swear I'll kill them."_

_Somewhere in the distance he can hear a child screaming. A baby, crying at the top of its lungs. _

_But the sound is drowned out again by the incessant humming and he puts his hands over his ears and doubles over as if in agony as the drone hit's a peak and screams into his eardrums. The sound of rustling wings as thin as cellophane, cracked hard cartilage rimming the edge of clear scabby membrane, as they beat over, and over again._

_Sense seems to topple over and stop as the answer comes back to him, smoothly:_

"_You did."_

"_Where is she?" Naruto finds himself shouting to no one in particular, finding his legs to be stuck in the glutinous substance._

"_Gone." the voice answers back, tones elegant and foreboding: "Why would you care? It's all your fault after all."_

"_I didn't-I-I never- How could I!?" Naruto yells back, fighting tooth and nail to break the restraints he's under, he twists and writhes but cannot pull loose._

"_You did all of it," is the reply, voice like alcohol, slowly intoxicating._

"_When? How did I? I don't believe you, I don't believe you at all!" Naruto chokes out, gagging on the thick coils of smoke and ash that drench across him and rake down his throat. **"I don't understand any of this!"**_

"You never did, fool."

_The floor shifts, a heaving eruption of black butterflies rupturing from the ground like the mass blooming of some ethereal rose, shedding it's ghostly petals into the night._

"_You let the plague in, you made the choices, and you fell into it. Now deal with the consequences of your actions."_

_Naruto looks straight back into Sasuke Uchiha's ivory skinned face; the fox growls, low and rippling._

"_Go to hell!" he bites back, lips pulled into a snarl, and his stomach writhes in fury as he watches Sasuke give a low chuckle._

"_Where do you think we are?"_

_Out of sight and out of mind, the fox waits, as a big cat waits in the savannah for the antelope to forget its existence in the blissful heat of the African sun. The golden sea of grasses osculates and ripples around it in the slight wind. Blending perfectly in the stippled honey coloured shadows it waits. Death incarnate, veiled in beauty and power. It lies there, waiting for them to make the move. For them to forget._

"_Let me go!"_

_Sasuke leans down further, impenetrable eyes sleek and merciless as they dip across his lips and over his face, travelling last up into his cornflower blue eyes._

_Naruto considers the fact that Sasuke could take him right here and now, that it wouldn't matter to Sasuke if Naruto did or didn't want it. The pain wouldn't matter; the blood, the agony, the violation, the boundaries had been crossed and intermingled with the enemy until the division line of where one stopped and the other began had been fuzzed over. Like ink lines left out in the rain, the black smearing and running into each other, twisting and meandering into different patterns. Another level of being._

_He's done it before, why should it matter now?_

"_I'm not the one keeping you here Naruto," is the only reply. He receives a flash of a smile: triumph? Sarcasm?_

_The glimmering lights dance closer._

_He won't trust anything Sasuke says, so he closes his eyes tight and tries to ignore the voice as it starts again, timbre soft and earnest, almost like a plea._

_The fox tosses it's monstrous head in savage greedy hunger: it's going to rip them apart and score their flesh, smite them and skewer the bones from their crimson bodies._

_Sasuke pulls away, eyes heavy and looking directly into Naruto's cornflower blue irises, half lidded and intoxicated. _

"_Naruto," Sasuke says gently, his eyes deep, and Naruto fears he's going to fall into them, that his mind will buckle and break and the restraints will fly in all directions. "You're obsessed with me. You'll never leave this place."_

_The door breaks down and the fox, from behind the clack and rattle of iron, throwing charms and broken sealing spells in all directions, plunges as an unstoppable force forwards. It's jaw snaps open, glimmering white fangs and hot putrid breath, ready to engulf them both as the lights flare and dazzle into a blinding brilliance that obscures reality._

* * *

"Naruto… Naruto! Wake up!"

Blue eyes open into a dim confusion of tangled sheets and writhing bodies, his skin is soaked with cold sweat and his mind still reels a kaleidoscope of different images in front of him, most of which end up drenched in blood. He claws at the cold fingers weighing his torso to the mattress and fights down the screams that threaten to tilt and spill through his oesophagus. All of his limbs seem to jerk and twitch on their own and just behind the cage, plucking at the bars, he feels the Kyuubi stalk. Behind his eyelids he feels the panic stir inside of him.

"Nobody's dying!" Sasuke is telling him but he might as well be speaking to a brick wall for all the coherent response it provokes. Naruto's actions are almost feral; like a wild cat dipped in the ocean he claws at the places where Sasuke is pinning him down. Mouth open and snarling and long glinting white canines glimmering, Sasuke wonders vaguely if Naruto will bite him if he gets the chance, and decides not to let him.

They fall, limbs still locked to the floor, and its like trying to hold onto electricity. The hot urgent taste of chakra seems to fizzle and whirl all about him; it climbs up the walls and festers in boiling pits between the floorboards.

"Naruto!" he yells again, "Snap out of it!"

But Naruto won't, or can't, and suddenly Sasuke can see the pictures too, the bloody ones, dripping in entrails and gore, the things that no one likes to see, the parts that people keep hidden.

The worst part is he knows that Naruto thinks the pictures are real, and the more he slides into panic, the more the Kyuubi pries forwards.

He fights to bring both hands to either side of Naruto's face, slamming his skull into the wooden planks, sweat and tears stream from around eyes stained with mauve but the pain makes the panic worse.

He stays in the half nightmarish state of dark shadows that flicker on the outskirts of reality, ghostly figures stalking him, prying apart his ribs and cutting out his bleeding heart to burn the flopping thing in front of him.

Sasuke tries to talk, to get through, and to tell comforting thoughts to a person suffering the onslaught of mental pain: but it's useless.

The choked sob breaks from the Kitsune's chest, low and painful, like something fragile is breaking, and Sasuke takes action, he does the only thing he can think of doing to stop that awful rise of chakra.

He kisses him.

The effect is immediate: Naruto lies still, and for perhaps the second and a half that his own lips press against Naruto's, Sasuke can feel the dull lub-dub of his own heart beating in his chest, see eyes through a blurry focus widen in shock and then…

Naruto twists his head away, pushes Sasuke with a violent force from his body so he falls heavily to the floor.

He grabs the Uchiha by the collar of his shirt as he kneels over his body, but in the darkness, Sasuke, whose breathing is heavy and agitated, cannot see his expression. He half expects Naruto to start pounding his face into a bloody pulpy mess. But not for Naruto to lurch forwards like that, yank Sasuke up and attack his mouth with his own, covering it with one glib and untamed movement.

Something inside of Sasuke soars, his stomach seemingly disappearing as teeth clack and grate against his own. Hard and fast a tongue pushes bruisingly against his lips, parting and demanding entrance. Naruto's fists are still curled around his neck as Sasuke brings his own hands to unpeel them from where they are slowly choking him.

His fingers snake up into the nape of Naruto's neck, cradling the back of his skull and pushing him forwards deeper into the kiss. The moist sound of Naruto sucking against Sasuke's tongue fills the air, and the Uchiha growls into their mouths, the sound reverberating into Naruto as he is pushed over and onto his back.

His hands fisting the material at Sasuke's shoulders, entwining fingers around his neck, bringing all of the long warm hardness of Sasuke's body against his own. His hips arch of their own accord as Sasuke plays with his tongue, toying with it, dancing a possessive game inside of his mouth.

He runs his own tongue across the tip of Naruto's canines, careful not to cut himself on the sharp edges, one hand deeply entrenched in the blonde's hair as he pulls his head back, breaking the kiss so his lips linger teasingly just over Naruto's.

Close enough for them both to feel the heat not close enough for them to feel the pressure. The warm tip of Sasuke's tongue glances over Naruto's lower lip, and then his upper lip, licking the corners, exploring it thoroughly.

Naruto becomes impatient, and bucking against Sasuke, opens his mouth begging for entry. He wants the heat and the pressure back again, but Sasuke just laughs, and bites on Naruto's lower lip gently, not puncturing the skin. Dragging the lip down, and then sliding his tongue smoothly inside as he hears Naruto gasp and give a little needy sound, he lets his mouth connect completely over the Kitsune's again. A hand makes its way from Naruto's neck, down the knobbly junctures of his spine. And it's Naruto, Naruto who moves his head back, who grinds his hips into Sasuke's: wonderful, hard, delightful pressure as Sasuke moves back with him.

Feeling he can't go in any deeper, none at all, tasting and feeling Naruto all that he can with all these damned clothes.

Salty warm taste in his nose, his eyes, his hair, coating his skin.

_// Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto… //_

Naruto pulls away first, eyes heavy and looking directly into Sasuke's dark marble orbs, half lidded with intoxication; tongues leaving contact last, essences that intermingled now being dragged apart.

He feels the hand in his hair, the way one of his legs is intertwined with Sasuke's. He feels how urgently he's pressing his body to him, and the hard laboured breathing of moist breath against his ear.

They stare at each other, and then…

"What the hell are we going to do?"

* * *

**A/N**

Erh well, haha, (looks nervous) you'll have to find out what happens next in the next chapter??? -is shot and buried and stomped on by angry readers-

So this was it, it's huge, it rambles, I made the discovery that Naruto and Sasuke can't even be in the same room together without someone trying to bite off someone else's head, Kiba and Shikamaru wanted to be in it, but _alas_. Next chapter boys! Yes, there are like a fudge load of mistakes, I am sorry, but this one became...well huge. It really did, without it meaning to. Title is a song by Stabilo from their album Happiness and Disaster...which I find oddly appropriate for the way I look at the SasuNaru pairing in Fish Bird. My lovely, very talented friend has rather marvellously decided to illustrate parts of Fish Bird for me (will pimp her in profile) there was a picture for the "I JUST LOOK LIKE SASUKE!" part, as well as Shikamaru from...chapter two, confessing his er...'faith' in Kiba and Naruto's reasoning skills.

Links are now posted in my profile! Please check out the artists' pages because they are all amazing!

**I would like to here**, thank all my reviewers, and everyone who has read Fish Bird, stuck it on story alerts, favs, etc, I was so happy the other day when I realised more then 100 of you had. I literally ran round squeeing (hands out chocolate chip cookies underneath a shower of confetti). If you have questions about the plot (here I mean things I have not explained well no spoilers for you!!!) or suggestions about inter character relationships and how I could improve and such I would love to hear from you!

Oh, ladies, and ladies (I think) I have one word for you: **Shippuden**

Love,

E.D


	8. Better Luck Next Time

Fish Bird

By the Eternity Dragon

**Disclaimer:** I usually say something here to the effect of Naruto being gay, and Kishimoto secretly being a fangirl and me not owning the copyright. I'm not going to say anything to the former but only confirm the latter.

Kishi, I worry about you sometimes...I really _really_ do, but I'm glad that Sasuke's got a chick on his team, and that she wears hot pants and glasses and leered all over him and all you did Sasuke was go "Get the hell off woman, I'm gay."

Well, to that extent anyway _-it was implied-_.

**Not that I was jealous for Naruto or anything...**

**Chapter 8:** Better Luck Next Time

A/N Sorry this took so long to get out and that it's relatively short_ -is shot-_ but unfortunately the current manga spawned the most evil of evil...PLOT BUNNIES, so I had to re-think the plot. Hopefully this version will work better but haha...now I need to change the summary..._-sweats-_.

**BETA'D VERSION THANK YOU VERY MUCH PENGUINSTEPS AND THANK YOU FOR THE HARASSMENT TOO!!**

Chapter warning: Contains SasuNaru make out session and some bodily groping...Enjoy!

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The bar was small: just one main room filled with smoke and the scent of fried food that wafted out from the greasy, pokey little kitchen at the back of the building. The jukebox rattled out another song while clunking gently, and the clink of glasses sounded over the murmuring babble that spooled around clusters of people.

"Do we have to listen to this music?" drawled a young man with auburn hair and fresh bloody streaks of paint striping each side of his face.

"I feel it's rather inspiringly energetic!" the man on the other side of the table exclaimed enthusiastically, thick black eyebrows raised into a pudding bowl hair cut.

Shikamaru raised the cup of sake to his lips, sighed, and kicked the whirring, clunking jukebox so that it changed track. In the dim light of the overhead bulb, the smoke stung his eyes. He coughed as the nicotine and the smell of tobacco swirled down his oesophagus.

With a tired and withering look in the general direction of Choji and Kiba, who were currently engaging in a vivacious peanut eating competition, Shikamaru told the both of them quite curtly that if anyone choked he would _not_ be the one performing mouth to mouth.

Lee looked on, a wistful expression on his face as Kiba guzzled down what he counted to be the 94th peanut and leant forwards for a handful more.

It had to be said that for all of Kiba's fine gallantry, Choji was definitely winning.

"It almost makes me wish," Lee began with an pleading look at Shikamaru, his hands twitching as Choji de-shelled his peanut with an expert flick of his thumb, "That I too-"

Shikamaru put the Sake cup down and gave Lee a deeply imploring look as Kiba bit into something that was definitely not a peanut. "Oh no," he began in tones of panic, "you promised, Lee. You promised that you at least would stay sane. No nuts, remember?"

Lee nodded reluctantly, although his lower lip wobbled and he could not help but add "and yet in the spirit of youth…."

This was just as Kiba held the thing that was Not-A-Peanut up to the light and asked the bar in general if it looked like his tooth.

"Too much youth," Shikamaru replied in darkly foreboding tones, "is a bad thing."

"C'mon Maru," Kiba said playfully, flicking an empty peanut shell at his grumpy friend. "We all got together because you were down, and all you do is complain about it!"

Lee shot Shikamaru a puzzled look which was ignored as the bar door swung open. The bead curtain that hung like a cloth in front of it jangled to allow a flood of newcomers into the smoky atmosphere from the dark shadows of outside. They all noticed Shikamaru glancing nervously over his shoulder as a girl with long blonde hair took a seat on a bar stool close to them.

"It's not her," Choji told him reassuringly, between mouthfuls of peanuts. Kiba let out a laugh like a dog's bark and gave a delighted grin. Shikamaru merely frowned at all of them.

"You are a big, yellow-bellied scrap of a coward aren't you?" the auburn youth accused him, grin almost feral in its broad intensity. "Have some fun why don't you?" he urged.

"If that is what you define as _'fun'_," the pony-tailed ninja replied tartly, glaring at the peanut pile, "you can count me out." And he pushed the sake bottle at Lee who politely declined, muttering something about "never again."

"Besides," he added, slumping back in the seat and reaching to pull something small and cylindrical from the top pocket of his jacket, "someone has to be sane enough to carry all your sorry asses home."

Both Lee and Kiba looked at Shikamaru disapprovingly as he began to roll the small and cylindrical something on the table top using his forefinger and thumb. Choji meanwhile continued to eat.

"It really is a most heartily felt shame that our friend Naruto is not here with us on this occasion," Lee interjected suddenly into the conversation, staring wistfully at the empty seat to their left.

"Where has our spunky blonde companion gone recently?" Lee asked as his thick eyebrows knotted together in a frown of bold perplexity.

From across the table, Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged a well-rehearsed look, instigating one of them to spin out the already formulated lie:

"He's been a little antisocial lately," was the evasive answer, "you know- with Sakura gone and everything. He's pining, the romantic bastard."

"He should get out more then," Choji said seriously. He had devoured the last of the peanuts much to Kiba's displeasure. "Although he didn't _seem_ to be pining to me, when I last saw him- well relatively speaking I couldn't quite see very much of him underneath the both of you."

There was a significant pause in which Lee gave both Shikamaru and Kiba a wondering once-over before Choji continued:

"He seemed more like he was in an argument with someone close to him, and by that I don't mean a woman."

Shikamaru glowered at Choji with slanting brows over his narrow tilted eyes, hastily changing the subject- "anyone else for a drink?" - and pouring out the sake. He pushed one rather forcefully at Lee, tilted his head and drunk another himself.

"Careful," muttered Kiba in growly undertones, sharp canines glinting in the murky light. "I'll be the one hauling your sorry ass back if you don't put on the brakes." He paused for a second, crumpling his nose into a soft grin: "not that I mind of course."

Shikamaru gave a slightly disgusted sort of snort, "Unlike you and Naruto, I can hold my liquor."

In all honesty however, his head felt ever so slightly muzzy and his tongue thicker than normal, a sure sign that he wasn't too far away from grinning for no reason. Possibly he would be intoxicated enough to even sing something trashy with Kiba and then slump into a customary dead stupor. Perhaps he'd better stop soon, despite the foul mood he was in. It was no reason to make a _further_ fool out of himself.

As they began an interesting conversation about who had the nicest shaped legs in Konoha, the situation quickly swerved into something that Shikamaru had spent all day trying to avoid. It was given by the subtle signal of Choji kicking him painfully hard beneath the table, causing Shikamaru to bite down hard on his tongue to prevent himself from yelling cuss words. He then tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, without giving up altogether and just diving underneath the table in despair. Which he did consider but decided (only just) against.

Lee regarded Shikamaru as if he had lost his mind, and then looked at Kiba, who rolled his eyes and jerked his head towards the door.

Two girls were standing at the brink of the bar entrance, pushing the bead curtain to one side as if deciding whether to venture in or not. One was a small lithe girl with dark brown hair tied in two buns over the top of her head, each pierced with ornamental chopsticks of the same colour as the simple, pink silk shirt and trousers she wore. As Ten-Ten looked across the bar, she spotted Lee who was waving cheerfully at her, and turning to her tall blonde haired companion she motioned for them to walk over.

The tall blonde, however, looked piercingly at the table and it's occupants with verdant green eyes, pursing her milky pink lips when she spied Shikamaru. She then said something to her friend with such a look of violent revulsion that it could only have been a swear word, and stormed right back out again.

Ten-Ten gave Lee a little apologetic shrug of her shoulders, and ran out after her.

"You're a dick head," Kiba told Shikamaru conclusively and swung back in his chair with a slight crunching noise, as some peanut shells splintered beneath the shifted weight.

"Oh, not this again," Lee lamented, as Choji nodded critically. "What deplorable thing have you gone and executed now?"

"I have no idea why," Shikamaru snapped; staring determinedly into his sake cup, face a mixed mask of depression and annoyance: "…but it happens every time we ever do **_it_**. He frowned more and ran one hand through his hair, slumping back into the chair again and closed his eyes.

"It doesn't take a genius to work out that you should stop doing **_it_** then," Kiba told him bluntly, to which Choji patted Shikamaru comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Oh, it's not like I planned to!" Shikamaru snapped back defensively, "I was lending her a gas heater because her boiler blew this week." He shrugged his shoulders,

"I was leaving, you know, by the front door, putting my shoes back on- when she comes in from the kitchen wearing an apron, puts her hands on her hips and looks at me like _this._" …And he proceeded to do a fairly accurate imitation of what Ino looked like when she was being demanding and bossy all at the same time.

"And then she asks me in this funny tone of voice: 'is that _all_ you came over for, Shikamaru Nara?'

"So I said, 'Why, did I forget something?' I thought in all seriousness she meant the boiler when… she comes at me." His voice trailed off and he put both hands over his face.

"You know something? I'm a guy, I have hormones too, I am not responsible for my actions if she was perfectly willing to- I mean it was her idea. I came over to fix the central heating for Christ's sake, not to do it on the kitchen table, or on the stairs, or _even_ in the bedroom. Then she gets all furious because I had to leave because I was already late for a meeting and Tsunade's was going to eat me alive- and she literally blew her stack! I give up with her, I really do. It's just too much of a hassle to even speak to the woman let alone-"

"I'm sorry," Kiba asked, his mouth slightly slack as he rolled his empty glass from one hand to another, "…how many times did you do it?"

Shikamaru gave him a pokerfaced death glare.

"Well she's quite mad you know," Choji said factually, to which even Lee nodded, "…but, you know, you do lead her on Shikamaru, so it's your fault for being-"

"You know something," Nara said very loudly so the whole bar could hear this time, "I would appreciate it if someone did not just _assume_ I am an evil lecherous hump."

"Nobodies _saying_ that," Lee interjected quickly, but he was smiling as cheekily as Kiba, who picked up the empty Sake bottle and gently tapped it over his tired friend's head:

"I do pronounce you an idiot, Sir Idiot because we all just _think_ it instead. Now you may rise," and at this Kiba waved the bottle in the air in a mysterious sort of way before getting up and ordering them more drinks.

"So this makes it time number…?" Lee asked as delicately as it is imaginable for Lee to possibly ask someone, with one hand cupped around his mouth as if this gave the act some more discretion.

Choji started on the bowl of Nachos.

"I've lost count," came the miserable reply, chin now on his hands as Kiba made his way back to the table and chucked Shikamaru's empty wallet at him.

"So have I mate," was the wolfish friend's insertion, "but I tell you what, no more talking about that. After this round, we'll go off and do something fun, yeah?"

Lee gave the drinks a deeply suspicious look. "I happen to know," he said slowly, "that the last time you and Naruto proposed something _fun,_ you both woke up naked in a field of cows."

"Indeed we did." Kiba responded happily, grinning, "Good times." He gave a long sigh, "except this time it would be nice, if instead of cows we woke up in a field full of cows and strippers."

Shikamaru snorted out the alcoholic beverage he had had the misfortune to try and sip at that exact moment. "Male or female?" he had to ask, a bizarre mental image dancing around his brain. Wiping his nose on the back of his hand, he continued shaking his head disbelievingly.

"Well, that's the surprise!" Kiba told them, and continued to grin.

They all sighed at this, and Shikamaru was halfway to giving in to his friend's bizarre enjoyment for peculiar entertainment, when a distraction once again passed in through the bar door. It walked right across the room, stood directly behind their table and looked like a highly enraged Ino tossing long blonde hair over her shoulder. It then swiped Shikamaru furiously across the back of his head.

Shikamaru let out a yell of pain as his forehead collided with the wooden table top; Kiba made a sound that resembled a dog being strangled as the glasses on the countertop leapt several inches in the air; Lee looked thunderstruck- an impressive expression on his animated face- and Choji toppled backwards on his chair.

"**Don't hit me you evil woman!" **Shikamaru yelled back at her, getting up from his seat, one hand on his nose the other on the lump that was forming at the back of his head. "Jeeze, what the hell have I done in the last twenty-four hours to deserve that!?"

Ino's expression breathed pure fire as she slammed both of her fists onto the table. The legs wobbled, creaked and skittered in their posts; the rest of the bar had become deadly silent as she leant forwards and snarled at Shikamaru: "You fucking _lied_ to me you piece of shit."

Her ferocious gaze then flew to Kiba, who wondered how he could have possible become mixed up in their turbulent love affair and wilted and blanched under her gaze. He seemed to sink into his chair whilst Shikamaru glared right back at her, unequalled but never the less very sore.

"Have you gone completely mental? What the hell are you talking about woman?" his eyes narrowed, now not as angry as he was curious, recognising the way her face was screwed up, how her knuckles were clenched chalk white so the bones almost popped straight through the skin and how her creamy pink mouth twisted down. What the hell had happened to make her this upset?

"_You_ said there was nothing wrong, that it was _all _fine. 'Oh, oh no Ino, you're just making it up.' _You_ told me it was just my imagination and that I was looking for things that weren't there, even fucking Hinata knew and I didn't!"

She sent Kiba another murderous look here, who tried valiantly to look innocent by distracting himself with another peanut. It didn't really work.

"We've had this discussion," Shikamaru said slowly, a sucking, sinking feeling pulling from his stomach right down to the bottom of his feet. "We told you-"

"Stop lying!" She shouted at him, almost crying she was so angry. "Oh, you told me alright, you had them spin off lies right, front and centre, and I knew something weird was going on. **Everyone's** been talking about it." She leaned in close to Shikamaru now, so only millimetres separated her face from his.

"So tell me now Nara, how come Sasuke Uchiha was just seen at Naruto's apartment?"

It was at this moment that Kiba, who had unfortunately tried to swallow a peanut, choked. The silence in the bar seemed to drop and spiral as everyone stared at them.

There was a split nanosecond in which Shikamaru considered all options here, evaluated each ending and course of action involved and picked the best track for him to take.

He started laughing.

One of the good secrets of becoming an elite ninja in any state, country or providence trusted with valuable information, is of course the knowledge of how to lie convincingly. Shikamaru had discovered a long time ago that it wasn't just lying credibly that mattered: a good alibi always came in handy for sure, but acting the part was just as important as the actual lie itself.

He was surprisingly good at it.

"I- he- there's what?" he managed to squeeze out, doubled over, one hand on the table top for support, wide grin splitting his face. "Ino- you don't expect me to believe that do you?"

He shook his head and doubled over again, still laughing. "Sasuke Uchiha?!"

Someone else in the corner of the bar began to laugh as well, and like a ripple effect with a few stuttering guffaws and hearty chuckles, the whole room became a raucous collision of laughter and people slapping each other on the back at such a ludicrous proposition.

No one seemed to notice that Kiba was turning slowly purple.

"I- but- it made…Yumi said!" Ino began, flustered, turning a light shade of crimson that didn't suit her as she took a step backwards. "I mean, she was telling everyone how she was delivering Ramen and-"

"And how the tooth fairy turned up and whisked all the noodles away?" Shikamaru interrupted, he felt mean for ridiculing her like this, especially with the way her green eyes were focused on him as if she had trusted him not to do this, and asking him to stop now. He wanted to, he really wanted to, and he swallowed his mouth dry.

_//I'm really sorry, next time I'll let you make a fool out of me…//_

But he couldn't, there was more at stake here then just their fragile and awkward relationship.

"People don't just turn up from the dead, you know."

"Nobody ever proved Sasuke-kun was ever dead."

Shikamaru waved his hand, suddenly noticing the little wheezing noises Kiba was making as he began to go from mauve to indigo. He slapped Kiba hard on the back and they all watched as the peanut went shooting out of his mouth and hit the barman on the back of the head.

"So he's harbouring other S-class criminals there as well, is he? I suppose Orochimaru is hiding under the bed and he's holding a tea party- sorry- a ramen party for all the other Bingo Book candidates that are soon to slide down his chimney?"

Lee and Choji laughed at this whilst Ino pursed her lips and looked at the floor. Someone at the back of the bar by the pool table called out that it was probably just Naruto having a laugh and spooking Yumi, just for the hell of it. Ino turned her back on Shikamaru for an instant to answer to this, and in the moment's distraction he took the opportunity to grab Kiba by the back of his collar and drag them both into the men's restroom.

As Kiba Inuzuka looked round and wondered why they were standing in a little cubical that smelt unpleasantly of piss and vomit and other bodily stenches, he felt the painful solidity of Shikamaru wrenching himself up onto his shoulders so he could open the dirty little window that opened up into a small crooked alleyway next to the bar.

As they followed each other, squirming out from the frame to land with a little 'plop' onto the wet dirt, Kiba launched himself onto Shikamaru. His brain whirred into action and threatened to implode as he whispered in hoarse undertones:

"He's killed Naruto hasn't he? He's killed _our_ Naruto!"

Shikamaru pulled a very sour look as he peeled Kiba from around his neck, placing one hand firmly over his mouth in an effort to keep him quiet. In a voice dripping with sarcasm he replied:

"Yes, Kiba. He killed Naruto and then ordered take-out ramen."

Kiba gasped, his eyes popping, wrenching Shikamaru's hand from his mouth. "The **fiend**!"

Sometimes Shikamaru wondered why he even bothered.

Together they jumped over the alley wall and scrambled across rooftops. They'd leave Choji to pay this time seeing as he owed them at least six free dinners and that was _just_ counting this month.

"What we want to know is the reason why Naruto didn't open the door!" Shikamaru called back to Kiba, arms out as he landed precariously on a brick wall whilst Kiba scrambled up the vertical slab of the wall beneath him, using only his feet and his momentum for purchase.

Kiba came to the top slightly breathless, and screwed up his face as they set off again to pelt down another side street: "So you don't think Sasuke…?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and wondered vaguely if there was any possible way you could pull those muscles from overuse. "Somehow I think the idea of Sasuke Uchiha ordering take-out ramen as a celebration of Naruto's demise is kind of out of the question," he yelled over his shoulder as they shimmied up the side of an apartment complex and leapt from someone's balcony to the next row of roofs. "Whatever the hell the reason," he finished, "we've just got to clear this mess up. You _do know_ what's going to happen now, don't you?"

Kiba made a pained face as he scrambled from one wall to the next, twisting his body as he flung one leg forwards and used the other to spring to the adjacent wall. "People are gonna turn up… well… girls will turn up, 'cause he's a bit too good looking for an asshole."

"This being exactly what we don't want," Shikamaru reminded him as they shot through someone's back garden.

"So… what are we going to do?"

"We? No. You, Kiba, you're going to be our wonderful decoy."

Kiba stopped mid-jump, with the words "_I-don't-like-the-sound-of-that_" on his lips as he fell flat on his face. As he scrambled up and pelted after Shikamaru's smeary black silhouette in the gathering darkness, spitting dirt from between his teeth, he panted: "I- what? Who- **WHY? **When did I agree to this exactly?"

"Doesn't matter," Shikamaru yelled back at him over the slope of his shoulder, "you're still being the bait whilst I take Naruto to see Tsunade about this, before she finds out some other way and kills him, and then me, and then you. This was honestly the last thing in the world that I wanted to do tonight!"

"Well this was hardly on the top of my list," Kiba mumbled, gaining level with Shikamaru again and casting him a dark brooding look. "We almost had Lee drinking alcohol again."

"Your fascination for getting Lee drunk escapes me," was his friend's curt reply, "I don't know why I agreed to help you do it."

"Because you weren't there when we did it last time Maru- you'd understand then that it was the funniest thing-"

They pelted up the spiralling steps to the fourth floor, their footsteps crunching and clattering onto the concrete, as metal and heel and shoe connected with the floor.

"I have the key!" Kiba said brightly, fishing around in his pocket for it.

Shikamaru licked his lips and kicked the front door with his left foot. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted: "Uzumaki Naruto, you had better be alive in there! Because we are going to kick your ass!"

****

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**_Meanwhile…_**

As Naruto sits up, he dimly tries to make sense of it all. Using his elbows for support, he slowly murmurs into a mouth that's hot and raw like burnt marshmallows: "What the hell do we do now?"

Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha with his dark hair and even darker eyes just looks at him. Expression keen, lips gently parted as he leans down, he ignores the question and presses against Naruto's own yielding embrace.

They both fall down together, a tangle of arms and legs- Naruto's spine pressing hard against the floor as Sasuke plays with Naruto's tongue, tracing the insides of his mouth, reaching right down deep inside so he can touch his back molars.

Naruto groans, and Sense bubbles and pops… not that there was much anyway. All his sense has gone. The Kyuubi purrs inside his mind, a great monster clawing at his chest, momentarily sated with carnal pleasure. It flexes as Naruto moves his head back to allow Sasuke to draw the rough flat of his tongue down the smooth column of his neck, in slow meandering circles. Sasuke moves little by little: teeth nipping at light cappuccino stained skin, up to the lobe of Naruto's right ear before his tongue rims the outer flesh before slipping, almost _gliding_ in. Naruto gasps, moans and wriggles as Sasuke pushes hard on his chest with his one hand, his other fingers snaking up to cradle the back of his neck to prevent him from turning his head to meet Sasuke's tongue and teeth.

The Uchiha grins, a hot moist breath against Naruto's ear as he withdraws his tongue. He listens to the blond's laboured, ragged breathing before he moves again to capture Naruto's mouth; drawing Naruto's tongue all the way into his own, to suck on it himself.

He loves the way Naruto arches into him, knees bending, hands skittering to the back of his neck, his spine, his waist, his pelvic bone and then lower… much lower.

Gluttonous hands wanting _more_, hounding for pressure and release… he can feel his own hardness pressing down and into Naruto's lower stomach, and Naruto's arousal pushing painfully into his thigh.

Sasuke pulls back from the kiss slightly, glancing across the Kitsune's full lower lip with barely the tip of his tongue. He watches as cornflower blue eyes, muzzy and clouded with desire, look up at him. Head cradled in threads of shadowed gold against dark wooden floorboards; eyes that see him, Sasuke Uchiha, without pretence and niceties. They've seen him scream, seen him bitch, seen him snarl, seen him threaten, and now they fall open so wide and innocent beneath him.

Nothing stopping, calling all forward with wide open arms.

Sasuke leans down and tastes the flesh of Naruto's collar bone, fingers tugging down the blond boy's white t-shirt, teeth scratching at the protruding flesh. He tastes of salt, his mouth and his skin, different kinds of salt though. His mouth tastes like sea salt dyed deep indigo blue and dried in the hot summer sun, and his body tastes like sweat, blood, tears and sex.

"Naruto…" Sasuke growls into his shoulder, licking along a vein underneath the skin. He feels the blond give a little whimper of frustration as he attempts to reclaim Sasuke's lips, but feels them brush only lightly and teasingly against his own as Sasuke moves across to his other shoulder.

It doesn't seem- doesn't feel- real. Dreamlike, the Uchiha slides his hands underneath Naruto's t-shirt, feeling, counting each rib, climbing slowly up over hot sensitised skin. Watching every movement of Naruto's face as he shudders, bites his lip and crinkles his eyes shut as Sasuke tickles a sensitive area. Hardly even touching with the fingertip of his forefinger as he brushes against one of Naruto's nipples- but the Kitsune can't help but cry out. The loss of control for that one split second lights fires of dominance in Sasuke's chest.

He moves, plunging his tongue between Naruto's firm but pliable lips, lips that are flushed pink and swollen from the kisses, the nips and the biting.

The taste of him sharpens Sasuke's tongue and he tingles all over, suddenly anxious to feel more, to strip Naruto lest this blissful dreamlike reverie should fade. He wants to get right _in there_, beneath the skin, inside his body, as close as he can to his soul. Somewhere that will envelope him totally but will never shatter, and he wants him, oh god _he wants him _so much it hurts.

"Naruto," he says again, his voice rough and husky. He drags his body lower, hands slipping under the blond's back and moving them both to sit up. His fingers scrape at the white material of the blond's t-shirt until Naruto, shaking whether from the cold of the long wet kisses or from anticipation, lithely draws it up over his head. Keeping eye contact he leans, within the same movement, back onto Sasuke.

Sasuke finds himself pinned and grinning up into the fantastic, beautiful, insanely flirtatious face that is Naruto. Yes, he's grinning: because in this singular moment the world does not revolve around the sun, there is no solar system or even a universe. There is no need, there is just _them_, right here within this speck of time. No other reason is considered as Sasuke pulls Naruto onto him; he feels no shame in being so sexually aroused by another person, a _man_ at that.

His heart skips, flutters and thuds inside his throat as his fingers slide down to that hot forbidden place, as Naruto watches with heavy lidded eyes. Sasuke pushes Naruto over again, with another tumbling of legs and knees that causes them to grunt and hiss.

If Sasuke thought about it, really thought about it, he wouldn't do it. At least, not like this he wouldn't. He's not thinking, he's not himself, he's too relaxed right now, with him, all that blond hair against his nose.

Naruto pushes his forehead against Sasuke's shoulder and moans. He bucks his hips, pushing deeper into Sasuke's hand as he cups him, rubs against him, hot urgent and needy. It's a wanton display of lust as his eyes roll in his head, which tilts to face the skin under Sasuke's chin.

Sasuke feels teeth grating rigid against his larynx and then at the junction where his neck meets his clavicle, hard and pressing with an awful pressure as sharp canines pierce into the skin. He cries out in pain and desire, a sick, kinky passion, whilst Naruto holds onto his head to move in deeper. Sasuke can feel the blond sucking and lapping at the blood he draws, pulsing like water until it runs clear.

Naruto moves his head back, licking his lips so that they glisten.

Sasuke's deep breath comes in erratic judders, his stomach writhing as he leans forwards to leave his own teeth marks on the tender skin below Naruto's jaw. He returns to lick the seam of a panting Naruto's mouth as his neck throbs. Sasuke Uchiha licks his lips, and then his teeth, savouring the taste of Naruto's mouth and skin. He feels drained with Naruto, like it's flooding every essence, ever fibre of his body and he wants… needs more. Salt in his eyes and between his fingers.

Naruto will let him do it, he's sure of that. The blond's body yielding unspeakable liberties as it rocks, grinds, yearns against him, intimate hardness as his weight shifts, and the sky seems to lower.

Naruto watches his partner move down, across his lower stomach, tongue dipping across his navel and tracing the spiral of his seal-mark in a careful line.

Sasuke hesitates, for a fraction of a second, just before he reaches to pull down the waistline of Naruto's boxers. In that fraction of a second, it's all over….

Downstairs there is a thunderous knock on the door, making it shudder in it's hinges; then a shout, someone cupping their hands and sound waves penetrating through wood, metal and plaster: "Naruto Uzumaki, you better be alive in there! Because we are gonna kick your ass!"

Naruto, whom seconds before had had his eyes screwed up, panting heavily through his mouth, snaps cornflower blue irises wide, wide open and comes to his senses.

He yells, wrenching his body up as though someone had jabbed him with an electric poker. His knee collides with Sasuke's jawbone, sending him tumbling to the floor in an explosion of white dancing stars.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! We did not just do this, we didn't not just- oh-my-GOD!"

He stares down at his groin in utter horror as the sounds of a metal key scrape nosily in the lock downstairs. He leaps over a semi-unconscious lump of Sasuke, who groans as Naruto's feet pound past his face.

Naruto throws himself into the bathroom as he hears the sounds of the door jiggling about as if stuck in the frame- thank god he hadn't gotten that seen to yet, he thinks as he turns the shower on full blast and steps with his underwear still on (thankfully or unthankfully will be later addressed) into the icy downpour. He lets out a yell as a sluice of freezing cold liquid drenches every last pore of his body. The sweat, the heat, the smell vanishes instantly. In a few precious seconds and as fast as he got in, he jumps out, shivering, not even thinking to get a towel as he hears footsteps coming up the stairs. Straight out into the hallway he runs, and proceeds to drip onto the floorboards.

"Oh, Shikamaru, Kiba. Hey!" he pronounces in his I-am-not-being-suspicious-in-any-way-form-or-manner voice, and gives that easy carefree grin.

Kiba looks gob-smacked and Shikamaru gives him the best so-this-is-what-turning-insane-feels-like look he had ever seen.

"It's a funny time to drop over," he says conversationally, gallantly placing his hand on the wall behind him where he proceeds to make a hand-shaped wet patch on the wallpaper. "How's the weather?"

Shikamaru at this point seems to be beyond speaking. His mouth rotates and flaps in mid-air as he slowly shakes his head. Then Kiba murmurs in a soft but wondering voice:

"You're making puddles, Naruto, small puddles…."

"Oh yes, so I am!" laughs the grin, widening, but the beginnings of panic sear up through his veins.

_//Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit….//_

"Why…" Shikamaru begins, regaining his ability to speak, "…why are you all wet?"

"Because I just took a shower."

There is an impregnated pause.

"In your underwear?"

Naruto flounders and then counters with "Yes, don't you?"

This was all too much for Shikamaru. He'd gone from depressed to stress and now to bordering on the insane with this strain of conversation, and he finally snaps.

"**HAVE YOU GONE MAD? HAS EVERYONE GONE MAD?! THERE ARE RAMEN NOODLES TELLING PEOPLE THEY'VE SEEN SASUKE, AND HERE YOU ARE BATHING IN YOUR UNDERWEAR!"**

Both Naruto and Kiba stare at him as he continues, a tick-tock pulsing in his forehead, skin almost purple.

"**ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS DRINK ALCOHOL AND MAYBE PASS OUT BUT KIBA HAS TO GO SEE COW STRIPPERS AND LEE WON'T GET DRUNK, CHOJI ONLY INDUCES KIBA TO CHOKE ON PEANUTS AND GOD DAMNIT I HATE HAVING SEX WITH IRRATIONAL WOMEN!**"

Shikamaru, thus spent, let out a very long exhaling breath, slumped against the wall and slid all the way down it into a sitting position at the base.

"Now," he said slowly, massaging his temples. "You are going to come with me to see Tsunade. You are going to keep why you are like this to yourself and I never want to hear the reason why. But you are going to dry off and put some clothes on first."

Tongues glued to the roofs of their mouths, Kiba and Naruto both nod, looking somewhat dumbstruck. Naruto backs up into the bathroom and Kiba sidesteps into the closest bedroom, meaning to find Naruto some clothes in order to avoid Shikamaru's blazing glare of absolute irritation. He gets halfway across the room before he trips over a solid warm something lying across the floor, a solid breathing something that has two hands over its face and smells rather like Sasuke… except a Sasuke with Naruto on him. ALL over him, like his face, his neck, his back, his torso, his legs… and sweat, and saliva and… oh.

Oh.

Crap.

Kiba whirls himself towards the chest of draws and whips the clothes out as fast as he can possibly do without ripping off the tops of his fingers.

He sprints, half on his hands as much as on his feet, out of the door and slams it shut as he hears Sasuke Uchiha behind him let out a loud groan and sit up.

Shikamaru gives him another withering look as Naruto comes out from the bathroom, towelling his hair dry, only to be hit in the face with more underwear and tops and bottoms. He gives Kiba a little desperate look as if to say 'you too?' and is met with a slightly mad widening of amber eyes and a non-too subtle head jerking towards the closed bedroom door; and they both know that Shikamaru doesn't know and they know they both know it.

Naruto's arms shake a little as he slips the shirt up and over his head and worms his way into black slacks. He avoids Shikamaru's gaze and he quietly asks Kiba what the situation is, all the time his blue eyes wide, asking Kiba not to tell Shikamaru, because he won't understand, because he doesn't understand himself and _it's complicated_.

Kiba watches silently as Shikamaru and Naruto walk down the stairs together, and sees them out of the front door. He knows the plan- Shikamaru told him the plan before in case things went wrong- as they have surely done now.

He's not going to do it unless he really, _really_ has to… but that's not the point. He's acting decoy right now, and as such it's his duty to sort out Sasuke.

Sasuke who's emerging from the bedroom right now, a hulking great bruise forming on his jaw and some sort of red purple mark on the side of his neck. The discolouration that he's rubbing with one hand, eyes squinted almost shut as he looks about him. Then he stops, and sees Kiba standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him: wary, mouth dry as he rolls up his sleeves and takes the plunge. It's an absolute dive, and who knows where it's going to lead.

But Kiba will do it, on pain of certain death; he'll do it for Naruto absolutely.

"Sasuke Uchiha, you just made out with my best friend, didn't you?"

Sasuke looks at him with very dark, impenetrable eyes, face moody and pale, seamless complexion like molten marble as he opens his mouth to answer….

* * *

**A/N **The past uh, three (?) chapters have all been titles from songs because I really suck at chapter titles so cookie to anyone knows who sang them. This chapter was pretty awful to write actually, I _attempted_ to insert humour into this as you can see it sucks and fails majorly because who in their right mind ruins a SasuNaru make out scene? Apparently me, so you I apologise for that. I got some wonderful and hilarious reviews from the last chapter, thank you Bike for scarring the minds of elderly women, and for the critique my friend gave me which consisted of the troubles of having Sasuke on top, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed and even recommended this fic -spazzes out like light bulb and throws chocolate cookies and confetti- Also WHY HAS NARUTO BECOME SO CRACKTASTIC LATELY? It makes no sense, but dear GOD it might as well be a Yaoi manga...why Kishi, why?  
Why tempt us with SasukexSai porn and leave out the SasuNaru...huh? -I'm sure there's a circle of hell for those who tempt the fangirls with SasuNaru Yaoi and do not deliver, ... like a really scary circle of hell...with hot pokers or something...(shuts up)-

(1)- Firefly by Joss Whendon quote from Mal to Wash and Zoe from the episode : Our Mrs Reynolds

(2) For some language in this scene inspiration was taken from the following love poetry: Joyce Carol Oates- How Gentle, Olga Broumas- Sleeping Beauty, Carlyle Reedy and Janet Gray...Uh, I like reading love poetry? Even though as a person I am totally unromantic...? Yeah I know, I make no sense.


	9. Within Striking Distance

Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon

Disclaimer: I am now _glad_ I don't own Naruto because as far as I am concerned the whole plot is full of crack and is quite frankly smoking it as well. Yes, I love it, but it kills me a little inside every time I read a manga update, but damnit... KIBA WHY MUST YOU BE SO SEXY?

Chapter Nine: Within Striking Distance

**A/N**: UNBETA'D VERSION, beta'd version may take a while to be posted.

**SPECIAL NOTE: **This chapter is dedicated to Penguinsteps who is amazing, and special thanks to Heeythatsmybike for taking a look at the rough draft of this and giving me some wonderful suggestions as how to finish off the chapter. (Smooches)

* * *

Sasuke looked at him with very dark, impenetrable eyes, face moody and pale, seamless complexion like molten marble as he opened his mouth to answer…. 

"Like I'd tell you." He answered very simply and slammed the bathroom door shut behind him.

Kiba remained stock still on the stairs, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, mouth dry like sandpaper as he tries to swallow and had the unpleasant feeling of his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

_// You could at least disguise it better…//_

Kiba's feet propelled him into action and he bounded up the steps and came to an abrupt halt outside the bathroom door hand outstretched nanoseconds from opening it and hauling Sasuke Uchiha out of it.

But, generally hauling Sasuke out of anywhere was a bad idea, lord knows what would happen if Kiba tried to drag him out of Naruto's bathroom. The whole apartment complex could explode or he could be strangled to death by toilet paper.

He recollected, wide auburn eyes under a mop top of spiky brown hair and tapped his fingers across the wood of the door. He felt Sasuke as prickled away in the bathroom, angry vibes seeped under the door like a drowning vapour.

Kiba took it calmly, step by step feeling his way into new territory. The priority is simple, if Sasuke is important to Naruto, then, Sasuke by default is important to him. He allowed a little exhalation of breath and sat outside the bathroom door and waited.

On the other side of the wall Sasuke Uchiha watched at his reflection in the mirror, his breathing slowed as the ghost of lips touching his own and the invisible hands still clutched against his shoulders. Unwanted delicious things, Naruto smiling at him, sunflower yellow hair in blue eyes, against the torn pale ivory of his own skin, Naruto arching into his own arms, spine dipping and curving as Sasuke's hungry teeth meet his neck. They were perilous thoughts and he was uncomfortable with them. Too fresh, too new. Like skin that had been ripped open to bleed. The edges ragged and throbbing. It was like part of his mind had been cleaved open, hot white fire assailing his senses as his mind rose and fell into a transcendent state. He felt out of body, utterly unreal, strange, beautiful and awkward.

Naruto was dangerous, he was as addictive and as appealing as a drug and already as Sasuke traced the line of his mouth with the tip of his forefinger he remembered how the feel of Naruto's tongue had been.

He already wanted more.

Sasuke put both of his hands on the rim of the sink and fought down the childish urge to scream at Kiba to just _"__Go away!__"_, he turned the hot water tap on and watched as the hot steaming liquid rushed, swirled and gurgled down the plug hole. The noise distracted him for a minute, but then a rhythmic tap-tap-tapping emanated from outside in the hallway and an angry twitch developed beneath one eye.

"_What-do-you-want?_" he snarled, spinning round and facing the bathroom door, towering temper dripping from his words a blue and purple bruise blossoming beneath one of his eyes which throbbed and stung, warning him of a coming headache.

"Are you okay?" Kiba asked him, in an annoyingly calm voice, in fact Sasuke decided the Inuzuka _is_ annoying, full stop.

Was he okay? What sort of a question was that? There was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing for the pest to get worked up about…except…

_// I did just kiss him. // _ the nasty little voice in his head pointed out, the same one that told him he was a coward for letting his parents die like that over and over again.

_// But that was…I haven__'__t-I__'__ve never….I__'__m not….He__'__s just…he__'__s Naruto._

_That makes it different //_

_// Exactly. //_ the nasty little voice continued, _// That__'__s what makes it different, because you know you- // _

"Sasuke?" It was Kiba again, and the dark haired youth didn't know if he was annoyed or grateful at the disruptions of his thoughts.

"You okay in there?"

It was a dumb question and it deserved a dumb answer, Sasuke gave it neither, he just glared at the door, as if the handle would convey his feelings of displeasure and anger over to the idiot on other side and shut him up once and for all.

The handle however did not bite Kiba, no matter how much he willed it.

He wanted to push the thoughts of Naruto away, all the delicious temptation, the rebellious antics and the perilous words.

"Do you want to talk?"

_// Do I want to….__**What? **_

"No I don't!" he said with hostility in his voice, his back almost arching like a cat's, hackles raised all on edge at the sheer audacity. What the hell was this guy thinking? He didn't_ talk_, not like _that_ anyway. It was beneath his pride and far below his reason. He was an independent person and no one in no way was allowed to take pity on him because he was locked up and bodily violated. What was he going to do anyway? Remind him about safe sex? Ask him if he was gay? Threaten him? Taunt him? Try to drive him away?

_// He wouldn__'__t have to try very hard…//_

"There's nothing to talk about." Sasuke said simply, voice aloof and clipped, a tone that usually had an inbuilt 'leave-me-the-hell-alone' warning sign strapped into it.

"I think there is." Kiba told him, his voice deadly serious but a smile on his lips, he rapped his knuckles on the wooden frame of the door again, "Do you want to know what I think Sasuke?"

Sasuke Uchiha rolled his eyes at the bathroom mirror and blew the loose strands of hair away from his face, he was definitely going to have a bruise on the side of his face come morning, and a big one at that.

_// I__'__m not holding my breath. Here comes the usual: You__'__re a jerk. You__'__re screwing around with him. He__'__d be better of if you__'__d never come back. You__'__re mucking up his life.//_

Kiba warranted the silence emanating from under the bathroom door as consent enough to continue in his train of thought, he hugged his knees to his chest and looked gravely at the light seeping out from the inch gap between the floor and wooden panel.

Did he dare say what was on his mind? What he thought? Or, what he knew? And what would Sasuke do if he said it? Kill him? It would be hard for the Uchiha to do it effectively without chakra that was for sure, but still possible he was in no doubt of that.

And worse still what if Shikamaru found out?

Kiba swallowed, and fought down images of his friend slicing him open with a meat cleaver and feeding his liver to Akamaru on a silver platter.

He'd never been wrong about this sort of thing.

"I think you're in love with him, Sasuke."

_// What on __**earth…? **_

The doorbell rang, loudly and suddenly at 1:30 in the morning. This seemed to be exactly what Kiba had been waiting for, because he sprang up deftly from his position outside the bathroom door, ran three fingers through his hair, pranced around on the stairs for several seconds and then ran down to the door, pausing for a second before opening it.

The person who opened the door looked extraordinarily _like_ Sasuke Uchiha. Striking, tall, dark hair, unnaturally smooth pale skin and deep moody soul searching eyes. Except this person was definitely _not_ Sasuke Uchiha, the girls standing at the door knew that much. The roguish lopsided grin, the messy bedridden hair and clothes that bore creases, the wear of age and the slight stink of tobacco and alcohol.

"Is that him?" one girl asked doubtfully, pretty curvy red head, eyebrows raised almost into her hairline.

"He doesn't really seem coldly aloof, and neither do his eyes pin me down and ask if I would like to be shagged."

Kiba waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her and she frowned at him as if lost in thought, "In fact," she said slowly, "he seems awfully familiar."

"Yumi told me it was definitely Sasuke Uchiha." the brunette to her left said in a boldly confident voice, taking a step towards the ninja in disguise.

"But you're right, something's not quite-"

"Am I not living up to your standards ladies?" Kiba asked, he couldn't stop the grin from sliding across his face, his eyes sparkling almost manically.

"If you want we could all go roll about in the hay for a little while and then you two would definitely get your answers to whether I'm irresistibly sexually overcoming or not."

He raised his arms in the air, "Anyone for that option?"

The red head gave him another scrupulous look, "I know that tone of voice," she said slowly, "I've had the misfortune of dating that tone of voice."

She punched him quite hard on the shoulder and there was a small poof as the jutsu unbound at the seems like sand slipping through cupped fingers.

"Kiba Inuzuka!" she said triumphantly taking a step back, "I knew from the moment you opened your mouth and started making sleazy propositions."

"Arisa," Kiba said mock politely back to, " as charming, flattering and lovely as ever I see, still sucking the life out of the living to keep your un-dead soul alive? Well now you know our little secret you can tell the rest of the spectators to go on home now, nothing and no one to see here, except me."

He hesitated, before adding once again the devilish rogue, "Although of course the rolling around option is still open, minus the hay."

Arisa wound her long fingers into the fiery red hair of her mane and gave Kiba an assessing look, "You scared Yumi senseless? _You? _You couldn't even scare a new born kitten let alone a person."

"Like I said, always the charmer."

The brunette touched Arisa lightly on the shoulder steering her towards the stairs, saying softly, "Looks like there's nothing to see after all."

"There's always me." Kiba shouted after them, leaning against the doorpost now thoroughly enjoying himself, "I give quite a show, ask Arisa."

"I seem to remember you were all talk Kiba, couldn't even get it up on the last occasion."

Kiba's eyes were half closed with mirth as he uncrossed his arms and put one hand on the edge of the door, and leant out across the threshold of Naruto's front steps.

"That's because Arisa, you're just so terrifying when you're horny you scare the living day lights out of every red blooded man in the vicinity."

And then he closed the door with a slam before she got close enough to ring his neck.

That had been _way_ too much fun.

"What are you doing?"

Kiba looked up from where he had been in a happy little puddle euphoria and saw Sasuke Uchiha peering at him from the middle of the hallway, face childishly curious and inky dark eyes wide.

"Pretending to be you," Kiba responded jovially, jumping to his feet "couldn't you tell?"

"No, not really." was the dry and sarcastic comment that flopped back at him, "And if that was your best attempt at being me, you suck."

"That's only because I was smiling when I opened the door!" Kiba shot back petulantly, "You should try it someday, unless of course you've got some allergy to it. Like your face will fall off and explode if you even attempt one."

Sasuke's face remained absolutely deadpan, "I don't smile because I don't find you acting like a moronic idiot remotely amusing."

Kiba felt his eyebrows descend in a knot over his eyes, "No, you don't smile because you have a stick rammed so hard up your ass you can't even bend over to yank it out. Either that or you don't have a sense of humour."

Sasuke's hard penetrating gaze dropped to below sub zero temperatures and his upper lip curled in a sneer.

Kiba glared right back at him, feeling the hairs on the nape neck prickle and stand straight up, "Pity, because I think smiling might suit you."

Kiba was playing with fire and he knew it, Sasuke could turn round any second and send him spinning through the kitchen wall before he'd even had time to blink, and yet provoking him seemed to be the best method of wriggling the truth out of him. In his slightly agitated state the Uchiha was having greater difficulty in constructing the hollow mask he usually hung above the muscles on his face. A puppeteers master work, flesh working to a formulated routine, no truth, practiced smiles and sneers, no genuine reflection on the inner workings on the mind…and yet.

Somehow Naruto had dug a chink, a small cranny in the seamless defence and a small glimmer was peeking through, if Kiba could get his fingers in and dig, dig carefully, he might be able to prize it open wider.

He was concentrating so hard he clamped down on his tongue between his front teeth and almost gnawed it off in his frustration.

Did he dare repeat what he'd said upstairs? Sasuke Uchiha was staring him down, it was somewhat _unnerving _that look, thick and intense like churning cement, it seemed to pour through his sockets and fill the crevasses of his mind with a wet gloopy substance.

_"_I'm not going to stand here and listen to this." Sasuke said painfully slowly, his voice was sharp and metallic like a knife's edge, almond shaped eyes narrowed.

Kiba ran his tongue over the cracked surface of his lips, his body tensed and shivering from the clenching of all his muscles, he opened his mouth and felt himself preparing as if for a physical blow.

"Sasuke, you have to tell me. Are you just fucking around with Naruto for the hell of it? I know you're pretty pissed and all about him keeping you here but he just wants to-"

His voice trailed off as he received a disgusted look and a slow graceful movement that presented him with a broad stubborn back. Kiba snarled suddenly outraged, he wasn't playing Damnit! This was important!

"You know he was going to propose to her, don't you Sasuke? Naruto was going to ask Sakura to marry him, two weeks before we unfortunately stumbled across you!"

This called a halt in the movement, and the Uchiha turned his head a little, eyes as sharp as a knife's edge.

"Why didn't he?"

If this information was new and unexpected to Sasuke he wasn't showing it, if anything his demeanour had become colder and more impenetrable in the last thirty seconds.

"He got cold feet, last second. He bought the ring and everything. Pulled double shifts, collapsed on my doorstep a few times, other times Shikamaru and I would have to go pick him up because he was too exhausted to make it home by himself."

Still nothing, Kiba ground on thoroughly protective of Naruto's actions and his convictions, "He loves her you know. He's under the deluded idea that no ones ever going to do that again as long as he lives. He always thinks he's all alone when he never is, he looks around for people to like and respect him when he already has our respect. It's you, you're the-"

"The outsider?" Sasuke finished, Kiba had his full attention now, but there was a nasty cynical expression twisting itself across the seam of his mouth, too sinister to be called a smile but it was twice as smooth. Almost mocking in its intensity.

"The problem? The one that Naruto always goes running after? Despite the fact that I told him not to, despite the fact that I never ask, I never wanted-"

"He wanted you!" Kiba yelled at him, loosing his cool completely and yelling himself hoarse for all the world to hear, "He still wants you!"

"Naruto doesn't know what he wants." Sasuke announced in cold clipped tones of someone who has had enough, "He's a child, he runs after one thing blindly and ignores everything else. He still thinks he can _fix me_, and if that's not deluded I don't know what is. He should marry Sakura, _if_ she'll have him, and I rather wonder if she couldn't do any better then him. Surely even Rock Lee would be a better-"

Kiba's pupils almost dilated to slits as his spine curved and bent as he sucked in breath, feeling the anger bubble and rise inside of him. He'd always been impetuous, primal instincts like an animal, he knew right now all he wanted to do was solidly smack Sasuke Uchiha's pretty face into a bloody pulp. He clenched his hands and pretended he was smushing Sasuke's dark eyeballs between his digits.

"Don't," was the dangerously soft reply on his behalf, "lie. I don't care if you insult me, I don't care if you yell at me and curse each and everyone of my descendants. But don't _say_ things like that about Naruto as if you know him so well-"

"I do know him _'__That Well__'_you utter moron!" The cool suddenly broken, Sasuke Uchiha was standing in front of Kiba, in the same towering temper he'd had when he was twelve years old.

"You think anyone knows him better than I do? You think I don't know what motivates him? You think I can't see where his ideals of me lead him to? You don't think I realise how much he's built me up in his mind into some sort of idol, some part of himself, something I don't want to be. I don't want to drag him down with me." his fingers ran over the glassy onyx stubs on his wrists and his expression suddenly became detached and distant.

"You _are_ in love with him aren't you?" And Kiba's tones were once again calm and perfectly at ease, in fact Sasuke thought the capricious youth was smiling at him, there was a certain sparkle in his amber eyes.

"Yet here you are, fighting him tooth and nail."

Sasuke set his jaw, and responded coldly down the straight slant of his impossibly perfect nose, "You just said he wanted to propose to Sakura, surely he's in love with her then."

"Yeah, he is in love with her."

Sasuke's felt his stomach sink, and then was disgusted with himself for even feeling….feeling what? Resentment? Regret? Anger? Jealousy? Disappointment?

"But he's obsessed with you, and he always has been."

Sasuke snorted derisively, he was tired, he was agitated, he was cold, he was hungry he didn't want to be having this conversation now or at any other point in his life for that matter. Mentally he pictured sticking Kiba full of pins and throwing him out of the upstairs window for the crows to eat, it sounded like a good plan to him.

"There's nothing-" Sasuke began, not quite understanding why he was trying to explain it anyway, or even what he was trying to explain.

"Oh sure," Kiba snapped at him, "so you guys just made out because you felt like it. Don't insult my average intelligence Sasuke, you have a hickey on your neck and Naruto was standing in the hallway dripping and almost naked. Either he jumped you, or you jumped him, which ever way round it was both of you enjoyed it, and _you both_ participated in it. Which means you find each other sexually attractive as well, which….which…." Kiba's arms flailed for a moment and his mind clunked and processed what was attempting to flit through it, all it gave him was the answer: Therefore they want to have sex. Except, Kiba knew that if he helped Sasuke come to that decision in anyway or form, Shikamaru would know, and Shikamaru would kill him. Kill him very slowly, with a spoon.

And that was something he wanted to avoid at all cost.

Sasuke regarded him now with a keen mixture of curiosity and hesitation, as if he wanted to ask something but hadn't the courage to ask.

_// Here it comes,// _Kiba thought_//he__'__s going to say he is. Is it too late to pretend it__'__s just the hormones? No, Naruto is just one big hormone anyway, that would never work!//_

The doorbell rang again and Kiba almost fell over in shock, he shooed Sasuke down the corridor and into the living room closing the door behind him before bouncing to open the door.

More girls, as expected, five this time, all looking at him with interest.

But before he even opened his mouth one of them announced tartly, "That's not him." to the rest of them, to which they all nodded, eyes narrowing. Kiba felt the back of his spine prickle and curve. It was like having one's body parts out on display and he distinctly _disliked _the feeling.

"He's still pretty cute though," another one commented, bold with curly blonde hair this time, "wanna come out with us?"

Kiba's mouth flapped for a moment not knowing whether to shout with glee or to bang his head against the wood with frustration, finally he stuck his hand on the edge of the open front door and almost shouted: "Sorry girls, I'm gay." and then slammed the door shut again.

After meandering in the corridor for a brief thirty seconds, wondering if he'd gone completely barmy not to have swung out the door and thrown himself into the throng of good looking women, Kiba regained enough sense to go back and look for Sasuke.

His mind was still running around with thoughts of sex, and who was having sex, who wanted sex, and how everyone seemed to be currently getting some apart from him.

Especially Shikamaru for that matter. The man whore, as Kiba privately called him in his head. There was a guy who got laid by a perfectly beautiful woman at least once a week, and was still permanently grouchy.

Some people didn't know how good they had it.

Sasuke Uchiha sat with his back to the wall, his gaze following the cracks in the floorboards as the living room door opened and Kiba walked in. He set his jaw, determined to lock it, but found this very difficult to do once Kiba had squatted down in front of him and grinned. As if this was the happiest moment of his life.

"Five girls wanted me to hang with them," he said smugly, almost bursting at the seams with barely repressed pride, "and they even knew I wasn't you." Sasuke could see all of his teeth, right to the back molars.

"Still," he added, visibly deflating, it was like watching a tyre with a puncture become more and more flabby, "they didn't know it was me either, so maybe it doesn't count."

"You think?" Sasuke bit back, almost choking on the sarcasm that came coughing up and out of his throat.

"It's alright for you," Kiba responded, resting his chin on the knuckles of his clenched hands, "you've always known you were attractive to other people. Girls _flocked_ around you." He wrinkled his nose as Sasuke glowered at him, perfectly shaped mouth once again close to something resembling a sneer.

Why did they always think that sort of attention was a good thing? When no one really knows you but just expects? And expect something he was sure he didn't even possess anyway. After all you have to have a heart to care don't you? And he was suspiciously lacking in the caring department.

"That must have been horribly annoying actually."

Sasuke blinked, but Kiba continued unobservant, "Still, you wouldn't have had any problem getting laid now would you? God, I bet girls would have queued up just to suck you off, lucky Buggar. You could have given out tickets or something and they would have turned up in droves."

He gave a slightly cynical bark of laughter and continued, "I'm still jealous of you though, maybe if I'd have been better looking….maybe if I'd told her…" his mop of brown hair swung across his eyes for a moment before he answered. Oddly serious expression on his face as he continued, "If you don't tell someone that you like them Sasuke, you'll lose them, and you'll be stuck with "What if?" for the rest of your life.

I…there was…" he paused again, licked his lips and then bit his thumb, "I didn't tell her, and now she's getting married. Which is good." he insisted, suddenly fierce again, "Because I can't give her what he can give her, he's stronger than I am, and it would make more sense. Re-unite the family branches and all that, and he's a genius as well so you know if she ever had kids she wouldn't be risking gene pollution for her babies by having my stupidity genes mixed in there too. I've dated a few girls that look like her, and then stopped because it was an insult to the other girl. Then I dated Arisa who was her polar opposite." he gave a low wolf's whistle.

"Let me tell you, that was a disaster."

Sasuke's mouth twitched a little, just a fraction, but it was enough, more than nothing and definitely a something.

"I'm lucky though," Kiba said quietly, almost a whisper, "I get to see her everyday, and talk to her, and be her friend…and it's enough. It's enough to know that I can be there for her and make her laugh when she feels down, and offer a shoulder to cry on if she needs me."

"So there's no tension between you?" Sasuke asked, not so much curious as demanding.

"I-uh…" Kiba began, feeling suddenly uneasy, this was very unlike Sasuke to be interested in him, in another persons problems that had little to do with his own agenda. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't after all known for being a generous soul.

He had a bad feeling about this.

"What if there _was_ sexual tension?"

Kiba Inuzuka was horrified, this was exactly the sort of conversation he _knew_ Shikamaru would find out about if ever Naruto and Sasuke ended up in the sac together (heaven forbid) and somehow it would be all his fault.

Kiba looked around carefully considering all possible answers he could give, he looked at the floor then back up at Sasuke again. Sasuke who fixed him with an intentionally determined stare like that of a crouching Tiger.

"You, erh… I mean….What?" Kiba asked him, although he already knew what was coming.

"What do you do," Sasuke repeated slowly, unblinking gaze never moving from Kiba's face, "when there's sexual tension in a relationship?"

Kiba's face, if it was possible, went into a rigid state of shock, his mind wildly spinning things like: "I knew it, I was right! I was right!" and "Crap what do I say? What do I do? Will he kill me if I don't answer him?!"

"I mean," Sasuke pressed on, his expression clean, analytical and hungry, "do you act on it?"

"Sometimes," Kiba blurts out unable to stop the words from spilling over his tongue, "but maybe not…it depends…I wouldn't do it with- but it's up to you….I don't think…….Maybe!"

_//Oh god__…_

"So," Sasuke says very slowly, "you think I should?"

Kiba backed into the wall.

Shit, Shikamaru was going to annihilate him when he found out about this.

_// STUPID HORMONES//_

Kiba runs his hands distractedly across his face, "Look," he said eventually, resigned to this cruel fate life had dealt him, "have you ever done **it** before?"

Sasuke gave him _a look_, it spoke of disgust and outrage.

Kiba took it for pride, "Oh sorry," he muttered, "you went off with that guy who had a tongue fetish didn't you? So, of course you have."

_// And he probably took some as well come to think of it. //_

Kiba wriggled around on the floor a bit trying to find a comfortable position whilst Sasuke looked almost frantically at the door wondering if he could sprint there fast enough before Kiba was fool enough to open his mouth and…but it was already too late.

Kiba was **obviously **one of those people who had no problem in regurgitating every small and intricate detail about his own experiences and personal explorations and exploits.

Sasuke however, _was not_.

"I think everyone experiments a bit." Kiba was saying, quite ignoring the most chilling sneering stare the Uchiha could muster and it was having absolutely no effect whatsoever, in fact it seemed only to stir the eager embers of Kiba's exuberant and ever perky spirit.

"I did." Kiba announced even louder this time because Sasuke had actually put both of his hands over his ears, alas, it was not enough to drown out the piercing tones of the barbarous youths voice.

"It's very different doing it with a guy then it is to do it with a girl." he annunciated, taking deliberate pleasure in saying every word as slowly as possible.

As if this wasn't already obvious.

"I mean you have to pick the right _moment_," Kiba continued grinning from ear to ear, Sasuke wanted to interject things like "Stop it." and "Stop it or I'll smash your head into the wall." or "I'll cut out your tongue if you say one more word."

But even as he thought this, he heard Kiba say: "And it's all awkward at first, and your thinking what the hell am I doing? The trick is to _not_ over think it you know, just go with it and it'll be fine."

'_It__'__ll be fine.__'_

Is that what Naruto wanted? For everything to be fine again? A perfect fairytale ending?

It would never be fine.

Naruto wanted things he couldn't give, he always had done. He asked too much. Loyalty, a life long companion, family and love. He wanted Sasuke to want him in the same what he wanted Sasuke, whatever _that_ was. Sometimes Sasuke thought he came very close to it. After all it was an obsessing soul consuming love between the two of them, souls unbodied and laid bare. There had been times when he was younger when he had almost felt like Naruto _was_ a part of him. Where one essence ended and the other began, actions and thoughts so predictable so second nature.

There was no doubt that Naruto was a problem, like some hot metal barb splicing through his heart and drawing blood with a steady drip, drip, one day it might kill him. One day there would be no more blood in his veins to give and then he'd die, but not before…unconsciously Sasuke traced the onyx knob on his left wrist, he had mistakes to right before he died. A stupid, stupid mistake, and a deal with the devil to fore fill first. He didn't have the time to die just yet.

"And then you start doing your thing, and it's like Shazam!"

Sasuke blinked, the voice suddenly jerking him back down into reality once more, he raised one dark arched brow and asked with all his usual cold sarcasm, "Shazam?"

Kiba smiled at him, "That's what I say when I'm getting some, Shazam." and he wiggled his fingers above his head as he said it to accentuate _how_ good it felt.

Sasuke would have laughed then, he might have even told Kiba that if he ever said _'__Shazam__'_in a moment of heated passion he'd admit to being a frigid cold ass jerk to Naruto and there was a stick rammed so far up his ass he could rotate on it.

But he said none of this, partly because he the words seemed unable to make it past his tongue, and secondly because at that exact moment the front door opened and Naruto and Shikamaru came stomping into the front hall.

From the moment Naruto moved across the threshold of the apartment everyone inside the building knew he was in one hell of a bad mood. It was something to do with the way the hell hit the floor, less of a 'Clack' of leather onto wood and more of a 'Ker-thunk' as someone drove not just their heel but their entire sole onto the wooden planks.

Kiba twisted up from his position on the floor, ears suddenly pricked and looking eager, as a dog will do as their master pulls open the front door. Suddenly excited and raring to go within the blink of an eye, he would have jumped up and leapt all over Naruto too, despite whatever mood he had been in, except Shikamaru intervened.

He grabbed Kiba by the collar, and hauled him out the door so fast it was all over in a heart beat. Kiba had barely the time to wriggle round and give Sasuke the thumbs up before he was thrown out across the threshold of Naruto's house.

"What the hell gives?" He hissed at Shikamaru who had the exhausted expression of someone who simply wished to crawl into bed as soon as possible.

"What did they say? What's going on Maru?" he continued to pester as his friend elbowed him down the stairs.

"You do _not_," Shikamaru began, the flat of both of his hands on Kiba's back as he applied pressure to make him hurry up, "want to get in the middle of that fight. Believe me."

Kiba craned his neck to look over his shoulder and his stomach wrenched at the deadly serious expression on his best friend's face, "W-what did they say?"

His words fell heavy into the velvet inkiness of the dark.

* * *

Naruto didn't say anything for a long, long moment. The front door clicked shut and the indignant sounds of Shikamaru pushing a dazed Kiba down the stairs faded into the background noise of the pressing gloom. The light was out in the corridor and the shadows crept from the hallways into the artificial lamplight of Naruto's sitting room, illuminating the shabby corners of the sofa and the wooden chairs. 

Sasuke said nothing, obstinate and on edge all at once again, he wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. But the look was annoyed him, it was the look Naruto had given him when he'd left. The 'I-don't-believe-you've-done-this-to-me' with impossibly wide blue eyes, except the eyes were darker this time, pits of deep indigo splashed with cornflowers framed by impossibly dark lashes for one with such fair hair. He looked….hurt…hurt and angry. Like a fox cornered by a hunter, leg broken but the gleam of some ancient savagery alive in its eyes.

It began quietly, the large things always do.

"They tell me," he said, in tones that were unlike Naruto's all the time his gaze, his expression never moving, never changing a bit. As though he wanted to hear it from Sasuke before he accepted it, he needed to hear it from Sasuke before he accepted it. Before it plunged his world into darkness and sent him spiralling through it lost and alone.

"They tell me that the Village of Sound was destroyed a little over nine months ago."

Sasuke's heart momentarily stopped in his chest, panic rose and began to bubble inside of him, veins and arteries dilated as blood rushed tempestuously hither and thither about his body.

_// How much do they know? Surely not…there was no way…it was a secret between __'__The devil__'__ and myself… // _

Naruto keept looking at him, he couldn't break away, "They tell me all the remaining members of Akatsuki, including from what I'm told, your dearly beloved brother…are dead."

Sasuke didn't say anything, his expression remained completely stoic, his body language stiffened as he rose to his feet, eyes level with Naruto, unyielding impenetrable demeanour. Terrifying, beautiful and sad beyond thought and reason.

Yet, all that Naruto saw is a person he's lost hold of, someone he loves, might even be in love with, but someone who is, or might as well be an utter stranger to him.

As only silence was his answer Naruto pressed on, his own conscious, his own needs, his own justification, part of him slipped and slid on reality as it spiraled and things began to shake loose and fall. Things he'd always believed in, like when Sasuke was strong enough, strong enough to….

"You didn't mean…to come back did you?" Naruto asked, there was a slight rise to his voice here, the wide generous mouth twisted a fraction, oddly firm line, more carnal, glinting teeth and white canines.

"It was all an accident, if you'd meant to…you'd have come back already. If you'd wanted to, but you didn't…you-"

"Did you expect me to?" Sasuke asked, his eyes are cold and pin Naruto against the wall he's standing in front of, limbs heavy like tombstones.

"Did you expect me come back?"

"This is your home…"

Sasuke Uchiha laughed, if you could call it laughter, it's a hollow mocking sound, much like his smile and it sent waves of desperation and anger up Naruto Uzumaki's spine.

"Home? You think this is my home? I burnt my bridges to the past when I left this place the first time Dead-Last. The Village hidden in the Leaves can no longer contain me, you fool. I've out grown it, I'm too dark, too twisted, too dangerous to be kept here. Do you honestly think these thin plaster walls can hold me here for long? You're sitting on a time bomb Naruto, you keep underestimating what I'll really do to get what I want."

Sasuke licked his lips, and a shadow flitted across his face, a whisper of things to come, "There are worse things than death you know."

_// He's outgrown me, that's what he's saying. Ero-sennin why did you have to be right//_

"How did they die?"

The question caught Sasuke off guard for a fraction of a second, but he never lost his composure once, the ice mask drips poison that seeps into the air and gags both of them.

"Didn't they tell you?"

Naruto's face worked only to form the next word, the only thing alive in the mask are his eyes, a brilliant blue that flashed as they became steadily angrier and angrier with each passing second.

"Intelligence says the whole place has been flattened, completely wiped out. It's all gone, there's nothing left. Not even a blade of grass, or a standing tree. It's a wasteland now, barren and completely bare."

There was that look again, the strange hurt look of child, "No _person _could have done that, Sasuke."

"Are you saying I'm not human?" There was the sneer again.

"I honestly don't know anymore…" Naruto's voice trailed off, "You tell me nothing but lies. I can't trust you."

"So you're finally catching on are you?" It hurt a little to be say it, it hurt Sasuke a little to say it to Naruto. Naruto who believed in him blindly. He had always left Naruto behind because Naruto had kept on looking for much longer than all the others had done, Naruto who had continued to trust despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It was something precious and fragile that Sasuke was trying to kill, a white innocent thing smoother than stardust and infinitely more dear that he was hacking away at. He could see it in those blue, blue eyes and he longed to crack it forever, to be completely free and clean of the past altogether.

_// I can__'__t die here…I can__'__t stay here…there__'__s a foolish mistake I made, and I have to fix it before it__'__s too late. //_

"I don't care about you Naruto, I never will do. I just use people to get what I want, I use you. Don't you understand? Everyone else does."

"Shut up Sasuke." The syllables were ground and the voice impossibly rough, he was close to breaking.

"You were always dumb, you never understood, you couldn't understand. You've never had a family, you've never lost like I have so you don't know the pain. You don't know how to suffer, and you implant your silly, idealistic-"

**"****Shut the hell up.****"**

The anger was closer now, like steam rising from a kettle it began to whistle, almost ready to erupt, ominous clouds to swirl.

_// What will it take for you to stop forgiving me//_

"Is it because you're in love with me Naruto? Is that why you can't let me go? Because I was your one and only love, and Sakura keeps the bed warm but she's not me now is she?…"

He walked slowly across the room towards Naruto, Naruto whose legs were locked, rooted to the spot unable to move.

"Because you want me don't you Naruto? You're a fool because you want me and you always will, you can't break the cycle, I'll always have you at my beck and call…"

The blond flinched as Sasuke brushed the tips of his fingers against his cheek, and traced the three vertical scars whisper light, "My poor, ugly, monstrous demon…"

Naruto's eyes were still looking at him, angry, hurt, disbelieving, such a deep and trusting and unfeasible blue, Sasuke's hot breath was against his ear and his heart fluttered and jittered at the heat that radiated from the supple body before him. His body wanted, whilst his brain recoiled, he's drunk on Sasuke Uchiha.

His eyes, his smell, his touch, the way he talks, the way he whispers, the way his mouth moves as the words come spilling over his tongue.

So what if they hurt? So what if they pull him apart inside? Sasuke's here, isn't that enough? Touching him, so close to holding him.

Sasuke Uchiha tilted Naruto's face up to look up into his own, the rigidity in Naruto's body had gone, he was like a limp fish, he moved easily and responded easily to Sasuke's touch and Sasuke felt himself become darkly excited as cornflower irises meets his half lidded and in pain, but somehow still asking for him.

Like he needed him, like he couldn't exist without him.

"How could anybody ever love you?"

There it was, that small whimper of pain before Sasuke's lips crushed against Naruto's and the Kitsune was holding onto Sasuke as if he was going to drown. As if he was going to choke and never come up for air again, as if he was going to die and he simply didn't care. Feverish, delirious kisses, hot and tempting hands, it doesn't seem to make sense, nothing made sense, he was pressed against the wall with his fingers curled deep into Sasuke's ebony dark locks and gasped for air and sucked in breath and hated…_hated_ himself for it. Hated every single second, hated his need, hated his urge, hated the way that Sasuke said all these malevolent manipulative things as he caressed and touched him and all Naruto could do was agree. Agree and hold himself close to Sasuke because he was afraid of letting go, because he couldn't accept losing him. Because if he lost Sasuke, he'd fall apart at the seams and unravel and slip through everyone's fingers like countless grains of sand.

So when Sasuke did stop, did allow Naruto to sink to his knees, mouth flushed and swollen from the rough kisses and biting, gasping for oxygen but given no time to think as Sasuke pushed him to the ground and straddled him and Naruto knows he means to do it this time. Not because he wants to, but simply because he can, and he wants to prove to both of them that Naruto won't…can't stop him.

Then Naruto in a moment of cold clarity, staring up at the ceiling as Sasuke reached down unclasp the catch on his trousers.

"I bet you wanted Itachi to do you like this didn't you? Fuck you raw naked up your ass. That was all you really wanted from him, wasn't it?"

Sasuke didn't reply, in fact his expression barely changed but his fingers run up the length of Naruto's body and clench and span the extent of his neck and slowly began to choke him.

That was when Naruto Uzumaki knew he'd gone too far, knew as he kicked and clawed at the fingers around his neck that he was gonna die, right then if Sasuke could manage it. Little white dots bobbed and careered over a darkened background as Sasuke pressed down directly on his jugular and held it there. Things faded into black and white and then became fuzzy. Sasuke's fingers were cold and unrelenting as they bit into his neck, he was not even sure Sasuke is _in_ complete control of his own actions at that moment in time, if it was his body performing something on reflex of anger, deadly soul consuming anger that overrode his brain.

Naruto would die for Sasuke, they both know it. But as oxygen is cut off to the rest of the body his brains receptors screeched into overdrive and the Kyubbi's chakra exploded inside of him. Suddenly the fear of death overwhelmed, red energy surged and then expelled and Sasuke went flying. Naruto went flying too. Both in opposite directions, and hard into the floor.

There was a pause, a realisation, and utter horror.

Sasuke looked at his hands and then again at the red spanning marks on Naruto's neck and the way Naruto coughed and swallowed down air through a raw trachea, then he looked like he's going to be sick and walked wordlessly out of the room.

Naruto heard the sound of footsteps going up the stairs and a door slammed shut, but all he can do is lie on the floor and gasp like he's dying. He didn't go upstairs again that night, he didn't even move from where he lay, curled up in a foetal position and shaking from the cold.

* * *

When he falls asleep, he'll wonder how he got onto the sofa with the blanket draped over his body, he'll have forgotten the person who came down later and said over and over again that he was sorry whilst he slept, and he doesn't know about the kiss in the dark. The light, loving one that Sasuke gave him as he lay on his back exhausted and fast asleep, he might think the dried tears on his face are his, he might think he wept them, but he didn't….

* * *

**A/N (2)**

AND THE ANGST CAME BACK AND IT WAS OH, SO NICE! I was actually not planning on this ending, it ended up popping into the final version and I rather like it. Most of this chapter was written to the album Frengers by Mew, which I love. Sorry if this chapter was a bit annoying, and took a long time to come about...plot bunnies and -tears out hair- just generally work and things like that.

OHOHO, what should happen next you ask? x3 Come on guys, I'd like this to reach 100 reviews at least before I post chapter 10, do you think you can do thatfor me? Purlease?

As Penguinsteps, Pandarosi and myself are about to do our A-Level exams, I'm reluctant to ask either of them to Beta as well as having less time to write myself chapters probably not be posted until mid July, so you're gonna hate me DX CLIFFY I KNOW AM SORRY!


	10. Comforting Sounds

Fish Bird

**Chapter 10** : Comforting Sounds

**Disclaimer: **I love Naruto, I can't help loving Naruto, I had a dream in which Sasuke and Naruto made out in front of me and I wish I had a dream camera but alas I do no. I don't own it though thank goodness, because then I'd have to be responsible for the bitch that Sasuke is.**  
**

** Warnings**: Lemon

**Beta'd version: **Thank you very very much guys! Sorry this took so long to put up, editing job is amazing as expected.

* * *

Now it was awkward again. Or at least that was how Naruto would have liked to describe it, had he'd had the courage to face Sasuke down. But he hadn't. He'd taken to avoiding him instead, and if that didn't work ignoring worked just as well. A cowards approach maybe, but the emotions Naruto was feeling wouldn't give him a straight answer. Part of him kept pushing to kick down Sasuke's door and beat the crap out of him until through the blood and the tears he'd feel better. He'd beat Sasuke into humility, and in the process, himself. Then they'd cry, swear at each other, cry a little more and fall asleep, and when they woke later it would all be over; everything would be back to how it was before. The brother and best friend he'd had once, and had always wanted.

Had this been all of what Naruto felt for Sasuke there wouldn't have been a problem at all; life would have been a virtual walk in the park. But the fact remained that a portion of Naruto--a strong portion--wanted to walk into Sasuke's room, strip off his clothes and touch, taste, feel, devour and be devoured until there was no sense left in anything, until he couldn't move, or passed out. Until he was so spent he collapsed, Sasuke in his eyes and mouth, drunk on him, euphoric and utterly sated.

He wasn't sure if it was love or lust, either. Had it been love… had he known it was love, he would have moved hell and high water by now, but as it was…it wasn't the same type, the same kind of emotion he'd felt for Sakura. His emotions ran like the edge of a knife—dangerously high and perilous; one moment he was walking the blade, the next he was falling to crash and splinter himself to pieces on the silvered metal.

When he was with Sakura, he felt at peace. If he closed his eyes he was confident of the fact that she'd be there when he woke up; whether it was shouting at him for not doing the laundry or combing her fingers softly through his hair with that tender smile and green eyes of hers.

He'd spent at least three days avoiding Sasuke, including ignoring him entirely, as was necessary when they had to inhabit the same room for any period of time together--such as the kitchen when mealtimes came. It was quite an art to pretend not to hear Sasuke when he sullenly asked Naruto to pass the Soy Sauce, and have to accidentally on purpose use it himself and then knock it with his elbow across the table so it conveniently rolled towards Sasuke's open out stretched fingers. Other times he had just slipped silently out of the room, apart from the incident the morning after when Kiba had turned up at some God forsaken time in the early morning with the excuse of having left his irreplaceable-socks-underneath-the-couch-that-he-was-unable-to-live-without-and-by-the-way-how-are-you-and-Sasuke-doing?

Naruto had been amazed by the fact that as Kiba and he had stood in the sitting room talking, that Sasuke had actually stirred himself from what Naruto had supposed to be a peaceful sleep after not giving a fuck about whether or not he'd strangled Naruto last night and just left him to die on the floor, until he'd at some point (he couldn't remember) crawled onto the couch. The hurt and the pain in his neck was still too raw, too new, too painful to be considered. He'd given Sasuke one look as the Uchiha stood in the doorway, looking blank an as if for a moment, he didn't know what to say. It was a rare moment for Sasuke, who always seemed to know what to do to piss other people off if all other attempts of avoiding social interaction failed.

The blank look of what Naruto assumed to be arrogance had been far too much for Naruto to deal with and with a shout like an angry lion, he'd forcefully slammed the door shut whilst the pain had throbbed dully in his neck and Kiba had wrung his hands, blinking fast but saying nothing.

The news had obviously gotten back to Shikamaru as fast as Kiba could sprint when he got out of the house, because low and behold fifteen minutes into Shikamaru's lunch break as Naruto sat in the archives at the bottom of the Hokage Tower, determined not to go back to the house until late unless there was some dire emergency (say for example his apartment burst into many colourful flames), when a bag of donuts, the sort he liked with a custard cream centre and sprinkles on the top descended onto his lap out of nowhere. When he glanced up he saw Shikamaru looking down at him across the mild descent of his nose.

They hadn't talked about it; Shikamaru never did unless Kiba was there to bluntly poke him with a preverbal stick into talking about feelings and other such emotional topics, and even then he did it grudgingly. Shikamaru had him eat the last donut though as a tired Naruto had rested his weary head on Shikamaru's pointed and somewhat bony shoulder and tried very hard to swallow down the hiccupping, stupid little noises his body was insisting on making because he was emotionally and physically drained. Afterwards Shikamaru had obligingly skipped whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing and had helped Naruto with the tedious job of sorting through dusty archive volumes after dusty archive volumes, despite the fact that Tsunade had only given the job to Naruto because he'd begged and pleaded for something to do after she had point blank refused to send him on anything dangerous or potentially risky after the 'take out Ramen' incident (although that hadn't strictly been Naruto's fault). She'd also denied his application to ANBU before his resume and skills had even been assessed by any of the ANBU team Captains. She had argued that he wasn't ready, that he wasn't the right type and that now was the wrong timing. She was still blowing smoke over the fact that no one had heard from Sakura's team for over a month now. Every time someone mentioned the name Sakura in Tsunade's presence she developed a twitch under one eye and threw things across the room; much to Shizune's dismay, because she was often the one left to deal with the aftermath and the mess.

Naruto was getting tetchy about it as well, and the fact that Kakashi was still not back yet from his mission of checking up on them. He'd been gone for a little under a month; something, which should have taken two weeks, had so far taken three and a half weeks.

Naruto missed Sakura. He'd gone to her apartment the other night when he'd been unable to sleep due to the fact that Sasuke had kept pacing up and down his room, up and down, up and down, at three o'clock in the morning and Naruto hadn't trusted himself to go in there, not knowing if he'd simply kill Sasuke, or cover his mouth with his own and pull him down hard and fast on top of him.

Sitting in her apartment, in her kitchen, at her little kitchen table, he'd found himself, if it were possible, at a greater unease than before. The place seemed to whisper at him "Hurry, hurry…" and other things like "Liar" and "Cheat." Which Naruto supposed he was, but at the same time, he knew inherently that Sakura would have understood more than anyone, because she too had…maybe still did feel the same sort of emotions that he felt for Sasuke.

He'd fished around for a bit in her plant pots until he'd found the ring in its small blue box, sitting exactly where he'd left it. The box had been slightly damp, covered in earth, but the ring itself as blood red and as beautiful as it had ever been. Naruto had pocketed it, knowing full well this time of whom and what the ring had reminded him of, and why it hadn't struck him before seemed something of massive blunder on his behalf.

Sasuke. The ring reminded him of Sasuke.

It occurred to him then that he'd been having the dreams…the sexual dreams about Sasuke for a long time now. Haunting, odd, morbid and yet erotic images had clinked through his mind as he had sat there rotating the ring about his fingers and silently wondering what it all meant.

He didn't love Sasuke like that… did he? Yes he did; he always had. Sasuke had been such a powerful obsession to him that he hadn't known when the obsession ended and the love began. Or was the love another part of the obsession, where his mind projected all the ways that he could in fact have him? Except in the dreams it was always Sasuke taking from him; taking what Naruto gave grudgingly. Part of him recognised the fact that he didn't need Sasuke, part of him argued that Sasuke was another part, an amputated leg that he was trying to sow back on again when he knew the stick he had been using to walk served just as well. It was too late to back out now, he knew that, despite what everyone had said and told him he'd gone and done it anyway. Because he was sick, because Sasuke was his weakness, because he, Naruto Uzumaki, was lost when it came to Sasuke. He wanted strong arms to wrap around and touch his body, he wanted the taste of Sasuke flowing across his tongue, and the pressing hardness of Sasuke's chest, abdomen, and legs twisting and sliding across his own. But did he want to wake up and find Sasuke lying next to him? Did he want to wake up and smile at Sasuke, run his hands through dark ebony locks and tell him that he loved him? Did he want to spend his life joined to Sasuke and whatever dark roads entailed, or did he want to heal Sasuke and set him free? And if that was the case, was there ever a plan with less hope of success?

Naruto didn't even know what he wanted anymore.

Or even what Sasuke needed from him. Not that Sasuke needed anything from him, he'd made that quite clear in their last conversation, but Naruto felt like he didn't know anything about Sasuke anymore. He didn't know whom the person that was living in his house, the person whom he had let kiss him, touch him and oh-so willing to let him to do much, much more, was.

He was as lost as he had ever been. On a long winding road where the dirt trail disappears into what could be a multitude of directions, Naruto heard the voices of the other day ringing loud and clear as he chased the echoing memory through his own head.

"_They're all dead?" Naruto had heard himself repeating after Tsunade whilst Jiraiya had looked on grimly at him from behind the Hokage's chair._

"_Just like that? It's amazing he was that strong! He took down Sound and Akatsuki all by himself?!" Naruto had been laughing, blue eyes flashing. But Tsunade had shaken her head, slowly._

"_It wasn't like that Naruto, from what reports say, it wasn't in a way that any human could have done."_

_Naruto had been silent for a moment before speaking again, "…What do you mean nothing human?"_

It was pointless really, all pointless. His optimism had run out; he was facing a brick wall and didn't know how to make head nor tails out of it. Sasuke was a closed book to him, and now he was leaning open, pages fluttering in the wind and ink smearing in the torrential rain. He needed…he needed out, he needed release. He wanted something, some sign, some way to help, some little word. Something to tell him this was 'all okay', that they'd make it through.

Naruto had never doubted for a moment that Sasuke would save himself, that Sasuke would find a way through and find a future, but now Naruto wondered if that future necessarily included him.

He walked back through the rain, droplets of icy cold liquid dripping across his fringe and into his eyes, his jacket was soaked through and clinging to his skin as he opened the front door shivering. Lashes stuck in thick dark blond clumps about his eyes, and he sneezed, reminding himself it would hardly do the world wonders if he got sick again. Who knows what could happen this time, the whole house might explode. Naruto smiled as he slipped off his shoes, imagining the mess and rubble that Sasuke would undoubtedly make, he took a long inhale, slicking his wet hair back against his head and smelling smoke.

Yeah, there would certainly be smoke if Sasuke blew the house up; he took a few steps forward noting how the smell of smoke got stronger the closer he got to the kitchen. He was just shaking his head and telling himself that Sasuke would probably blow the house up trying to cook when he twigged that this might actually be the case happening right now at this very minute. Yelped like a stung cat and threw himself at the kitchen door and tumbled down onto the floorboards on the other side of the door.

Had Naruto not been so busy panicking that his apartment might burn down and destroy all the instant ramen he kept in the cupboards underneath the sink he might have very well laughed. In his panic however he ran into the table and fell under and over two chairs in a clumsy attempt to get to Sasuke as quickly as possible.

It was quite embarrassing for the Uchiha actually, it had seemed that in the process of cooking egg fried rice that Sasuke had poured too much oil into the pan (not being adept at cooking or even having the slightest understanding to how the gas stove worked) the pan had lit up like a firework and throwing water onto the mess had only made the flames jump higher until they were licking and convulsing in a heated contusion high in the air.

Sasuke heard the kitchen door bang open and guessed it to be Naruto, his suspicions proved to be correct as a wet and dirty blond collided with his back and tried to yank the pan off the stove and dump it straight into the sink which was filled with soapy water. Unfortunately the handle at this point was burning hot, and Naruto let go mid yank with a yelp of pain and the frying pan slipped slightly setting the dishcloth on fire which was painfully close to Naruto's face and Naruto yelled something obscene that sounded like "Mother fucking hermit snake bollocks!"

In the face of Naruto setting all of his hair alight Sasuke grabbed the basin of soapy water in the sink and threw the contents at Naruto and the pan. The flames went down in a hissing sullenly slump that spit out copious amounts of dirty grey smoke and ash, and Naruto was left in a drenched sloppy mess of orange, black and dirty yellow hair, and eyes that blinked and looked slightly stunned.

Sasuke took one look at Naruto's singed eyebrows smiled, he couldn't help himself, it was just so damned ridiculous he couldn't do anything but smile.

Naruto walked squelchily over to the kitchen taps and ducked his head under it, letting the cold water bring him back to his senses again. He looked up to find Sasuke still smiling, and then smiled himself, and then he began to laugh. To his amazement so did Sasuke.

"You call me an idiot?" Naruto managed to wrench out, he was holding the countertop for support, shaking the water from his hair like a wet dog.

"You were about to cause a national disaster, and for what? Egg fried rice?!"

"This," Sasuke found it within himself to retort, that damned supercilious superior look on his face and one haughtily arched brow, "from someone who has half of each eyebrow burnt to a crisp on their gormless face?"

"I do not have half eyebrows, dickhead!" Naruto yelled back at Sasuke, still shaking from laughter but never the less running his forefingers across his eyebrows just to make sure that they were still there.

"Next time let me make the food!"

"I would have done, but I was hungry and I didn't see why I should damned well wait for you to make some food in your own sweet time, you've been out **all** day!"

_// He knew that because he'd been waiting for him //_

"Next time try making the instant stuff, it's obvious you're an unspoken kitchen catastrophe waiting to happen."

"I don't like that instant shit you have in there, it tastes like sawdust and smells even worse."

Naruto huffed and puffed at this, feeling his insides swell in indignation.

"Well then your highness, you'll just have to wait for me to cook for you won't you?"

"And starve in the meantime I suppose, not that you really give a damn about whether I live or die-"

"Oh cut the crap Sasuke!" Naruto hissed at him, taking a threatening step forwards, sodden and wet and utterly terrifying with water dribbling from the hair flat against his temples and down the sides of his cheeks.

"Well," the Uchiha answered him icily, not moving an inch, "isn't that why you've been avoiding me all week?"

Naruto floundered slightly at this, then spun back "I seem to remember someone with their fingers around my neck and trying to end my all too short life span with their own hands not so very long ago Sasuke. So I'd check your tongue and your memory before you start firing blind bullets about _me_ avoiding the issue."

Sasuke's heart flickered a moment, before it seemed to stop, his tongue felt thick and useless inside his mouth as Naruto glared up at him. Naruto on his part didn't know if Sasuke was forgiven, he didn't know if he'd already forgiven Sasuke directly after the act, or even before the act when he'd begged and pleaded to bring Sasuke back to his apartment rather than leave him in the hospital. Naruto didn't know when he'd forgiven Sasuke for using him, pushing him aside, stepping on him, under appreciating him and taunting him. But he knew he had done, because the reality of Sasuke loving him was so great he'd push the universe aside for it.

So when Sasuke opened his mouth, shut it again and looked down at the floor unsure of himself, Naruto didn't know why he started apologising, started babbling on about all these silly useless things that he had done, saying things like, "I wanted to help you." And "I didn't know what else I could do." Or "He's Itachi, it's always Itachi, I always loose Itachi."

Naruto found himself laughing at his own backtracking; he ran fingers through his hair distractedly, "For once I'd like to win against your brother." He said softly, "Even if he's dead he's still winning against me, lucky bastard. But then again, I always am the ultimate looser aren't I Sasuke? You used to call me that, Dead-Last.

I suppose that's what I am. You'd probably be happier, much happier if you got away from here, got away from me. I'm so stupidly hung up on you, you see."

He looked towards the window and away from Sasuke.

Sasuke with that impossibly dark hair and smoky eyes unbearably dark and yet so silvery grey when it caught the light, like polished mirrors faded with age. Sasuke had such high cheekbones and such a perfect mouth beneath an impossibly straight nose. It was odd when Naruto found himself pinned to the wall with both his hands above his head, he was almost crying himself he was so exhausted, so tired, so bloody tired.

"You'd…you just want to go don't you?"

Sasuke's mouth was close to his, and Naruto could feel the hot puffs of breath sliding across his scarred cheeks.

"I have to…" there was a slight strain to the voice, deep and sultry as it was, but Naruto had difficulty deciphering what it was with all the desire and lust that was spinning about in his own mind. Being close to Sasuke was a mistake, he could smell and feel the dark haired youth and it sent blood to all the wrong places, diverting blood from parts of him that needed it more, like his brain for example. Pitiful underused organ as it already was.

But Naruto was lost as Sasuke's tongue slid across his mouth, and he found himself obligingly opening his lips and inviting Sasuke in.

"You're going to let me out?" Sasuke said breathily teasing like a cat, turning his attention away from the desire embedded within him to ravage Naruto's hot mouth, so alluring and tempting as it was.

"I don't…_Ahh!_" Naruto began, and then couldn't finish as Sasuke slid his hands under the wet and sodden material of the black jacket the blond was wearing and placed his hot palms and searching fingers against the hard flatness of Naruto's taut stomach.

Naruto turned his head to the side and snarled, hating the fact that Sasuke could just touch him, simply touch him and the world span and his legs threatened to buckle under him.

"Just for a second," Sasuke was whispering into his ear, nudging the shell with the tip of his nose, fingers stroking from the bottom of Naruto's ribs to the top of the waistband of his trousers. Naruto kept hissing every time Sasuke's fingers traced the rim of the waistband teasingly, knowing full well Naruto wanted him to put his hand lower. Half of his mind screamed at him to take Naruto right here and then against the kitchen wall, wrap his legs around his waist and bury himself so deep in him and make Naruto scream out his name over and over again. He wanted to have Naruto, to keep him, he wanted to tell Naruto that he had been the only thing he had been thinking about these past three days, and had not done something so abominably stupid he would have had him by now. He would have completely stolen his heart and left all thoughts of Sakura blowing a distant and bitter wind.

But if Naruto…if they…it was an impossibility.

"Just let me out, just for a moment, it'll just take a second, I want to feel the wind on my face, the rain and the sun. Just one second Naruto…"

Small strangled reply, almost a hollow laugh, "You'll leave."

Sasuke stopped, heart jumping in his mouth, he felt one of Naruto's hands curl into his hair pulling him closer, and he was met with those impossibly blue eyes again.

"What if I don't want you to leave?"

Sasuke closed his eyes because it was easier to do it this way, so he wouldn't have to look at all that broken innocence in the face again, he could shatter Naruto now, unleash sharp cruel things onto his psyche that would break him in half. But knowing Naruto it would probably only give the blond another incentive to chase after him again after he'd put himself back together again. Naruto was good at piecing himself back together again, and the words were too reminiscent of Valley of the End anyway to hold any real fortitude. Instead he'd have to settle by breaking Naruto's heart piece by piece and sowing it back together in a way which didn't include him.

He pressed the right buttons this time.

"What about Sakura?"

Naruto's face went through a rainbow of emotions at this, from anger to betrayal, to confusion and then to sadness.

"Sakura would…she's…she always…"

But Sasuke could feel Naruto's determination wavering somewhat, the boundary felt it, the thing around the house wavered and fluxuated for a second. They felt the chakra of it flickering throughout their bodies and were filled with it for a second.

"Let me out, Naruto."

It wasn't a demand this time, it wasn't a threat, but spoken as if to a lover and it wrenched at Naruto's heart just beneath his ribs, as if he was splitting slowly in two.

Naruto let him; all the while Sasuke kissed him, his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his cheeks, his forehead. Lips and teeth lingering on his skin, as Naruto felt the breath in his throat come short and stick in his chest. He made a mistake with the hand signs a few times, his fingers trembling with the adrenaline and high sickness running through his system. He remembered shaking his head and gasping as Sasuke took his hands in each of his and raised them to his mouth, gently teasing the tips of each fingers with his lips and sliding them slowly across his tongue, all the while looking at Naruto with such dark deep bottomless eyes it seemed impossible to think of anything but Sasuke. It was like being overpowered, filled from the inside out, he didn't understand all the loving motions Sasuke made as he unbound the Jutsu, like the way Sasuke rubbed his cheek against the inside of Naruto's wrist after he'd let his hands fall away after the first unbinding was done. Sasuke said so many little, meaningless wonderful things as he did it, unaware and yet aware at the same time that they were slowly walking away from the kitchen, moving gently into the hallway. Naruto pressed so close to Sasuke so he could hear Sasuke's heart beat thumping against his ribcage.

The window was already open making it easy for Sasuke to slip out of, one long fingered hand testing and then out, and then the other, before he swung his whole body across the sill and stood in the rain and the wind and turned his head to the sky and let the water slide and sluice across pale skin and opened his mouth and drank in the raindrops.

Then he laughed, ashen grey eyes turning to Naruto. It wasn't the sneering mocking smile that he gave Naruto, but something of freedom and things to come. The truest smile that Sasuke had given Naruto since before Valley of the End perhaps, and in that second Naruto panicked, struck suddenly by loss and abandoning sense he ran after Sasuke, jumping onto the roof top with him, sliding across the tiles, forgetting everything about the art of being a Ninja. So like and yet at the same time, unlike their childhood, everything so familiar and so distant.

Familiar in the way Sasuke stood, smelt and looked. But the way they crushed their lips together, Naruto fighting for something, anything, he didn't know. He was afraid, he didn't want to…not able to loose Sasuke, and yet wanting to let him go, like opening the doors of a golden gilded cage and hoping the caught bird will fly back to you of it's own free will.

Sasuke was going, he'd let him go, he was going to leave him, again.

Sasuke Uchiha ran his mouth down the length of Naruto's neck, biting the junction to where the collarbone met the muscles of the neck; he tugged Naruto's hands towards him, filled suddenly with childlike excitement.

"Chase me," he muttered, not needing to give Naruto the incentive more than once, hell the reflex must have been second nature to him at least by now, if not maybe even his first.

Then he was off, as fast and faster still then Naruto remembered him to be, still a manipulative bastard as always but this time Naruto didn't even question it. He ran after Sasuke, blessed for the dark and gloomy sky and the evening light that cast shadows everywhere and obscured faces.

* * *

Everyone would be mad, his life would be topsy turvey, more so after this, but he cared not at this moment. Sasuke weaved in and out of buildings, taking deserted backstreets and waiting for Naruto down back alleys. Waiting for the blond to run to a place where he'd been previously and then vanished from and whilst Naruto stood there dumbly, panting and looking round, licking his lips, Sasuke would pounce. It was like some erotic fantasy where the world was their dream and Naruto would let Sasuke beat him to the ground, where they'd grind against each other, grit against their hands and painfully, almost agonizingly hard. A mouth would descend across him torturing him with small, brushing kisses, nipping, teasing, trailing, fingers cold and wet raking over hot and searing skin. Fingers pressing into Naruto's mouth as he arched and yelled out, the familiar rocking motion Sasuke would create as he pushed his own hips against Naruto and the blond could do nothing but follow it.

But every time Naruto tried to make Sasuke go lower Sasuke would pull away disappearing off for Naruto to chase down again in some other god forsaken dirty corner, at the back of a derelict shop, a broken down housing estate, and the rickety wooden fence in front of someone's front yard.

Gradually the buildings broke away to trees and the ground turned to grass and the wall was jumped and Naruto realised they were outside of Konoha. Outside it, and he'd let Sasuke out and it was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever done as he stood in the middle of a clearing of trees after chasing down Sasuke's shadow.

Except there was nothing in the clearing.

Not even Sasuke's shadow.

Naruto didn't even remember yelling, but he did, long and hard, so it ripped his throat and tore at his voice box, and Sasuke came down from the line of trees he had been hiding in, (he'd always been so awfully good at doing that) sitting on a branch and swinging his legs. His eyes devouring Naruto from head to toe, savage looking, like a predator, then Naruto asked, asked because Sasuke had come when he'd called for him and he'd never done that before.

"Please?"

He was even more surprised when Sasuke gave.

In retrospect Naruto didn't know if it was just the sex that Sasuke wanted, part of him argued that Naruto had wanted to know what sex in the rain would have been like. It wasn't sound reasoning, but in nine months time he'd convince himself that this would be the reason why, and not because he loved Sasuke, and Sasuke hadn't given it to him because he'd loved Naruto too.

Naruto would learn to turn the situation on its head.

They stripped each other of clothes and Naruto felt Sasuke's tongue lick and work at his navel and struggled to keep his legs from buckling beneath him, tilting his head up to the rain and feeling the water slide sensually across his hot lips, drinking it in and gasping as fingers dug into his abs and ass, digging into the taught muscle there. He sank to his knees then, wanting to find Sasuke's mouth with his own then, groaning and snarling as Sasuke's tongue merely touched his own, the tip playing, dancing, duelling with his own before darting away to slip around the shell of his ear which left both of Sasuke's hands free to pull down his trousers.

"We've waited so fucking long," was Sasuke's dark and husky murmur into Naruto's ear as he pushed him forcefully down and beneath him. The blond wriggled and squirmed beneath him, soil getting into his hair and his skin, blinking out the rain and listening to the thunder, why was Sasuke always so fucking gorgeous?

Why must he always be so gorgeous, even when he wanted to pound his face into the ground for being so arrogant, so assuming.

"Why must you always talk?" he panted out, his voice slightly strangled by the amount of frustration contained within it, lust and desire all culminating at once. His hands slid down to Sasuke's waistband and slid it down towards his ankles, regarding his erection with his eyes with deliberate slowness, taking in the size, cornflower blue then rising to look at Sasuke's eyes again to find them half lidded, almost lazy looking with lust.

Naruto smiled at him slowly, generous wide mouth and Sasuke caught himself thinking of all the wonderful and dirty things he could make Naruto do to him.

He made Naruto kiss him again slowly; pushing his knees between Naruto's spread legs pushing them wider apart. Teasingly stroking lightly across what Naruto so obviously wanted him to touch, and he watched fascinated, loving it as Naruto rolled, arched and whimpered beneath him, he could feel fingernails scraping across his back, digging in hard, leaving hot scorching red marks behind them.

Naruto ground up into Sasuke and Sasuke found himself panting, hissing, biting, scratching back, hot tension spearing and coiling in his abdomen, he could feel himself pulsing with desire and wanting and knew he wasn't going to last long at this rate. Wet with all the rainwater and mud, Naruto gazed up at Sasuke with hazy eyes, mouth flushed and full with kisses, red mark on the side of his face where Sasuke had given him the beginnings of a love bite.

God Sasuke wanted to fuck him, fuck him now, because he wanted Naruto, and only Naruto and had wanted this for a long…long time coming.

He coated his own fingers with saliva whilst Naruto watched him through thick wet clumps of lashes and put one of his legs over Sasuke's shoulder, his body arched as he felt the intrusion. Sasuke's fingers were cold and it was a somewhat unpleasant and tearing sensation, he wasn't sure he could be touched that way, new altogether being touched from the inside.

And then the fingers were gone and ah, fuck! It hurt! The tight ring of muscle forced to give way and his eyes opened wide as Sasuke came full into him, much thicker, wider, hotter than the fingers had been, and Naruto found himself wondering if he'd ever be able to get over this, if after everything he'd just be able to let Sasuke walk away.

"Once." Sasuke was saying against his mouth breathily, almost panting, and going half mad with desire and want. He was so fucking tight, so fucking hot, so fucking perfect. He felt as if he was slowly loosing him mind as Naruto arched underneath him, hooking his other leg around Sasuke's waist and pulling the dark haired youth in even deeper.

"Once…" he repeated back, rasping, hoarse, tears or rain leaking from the sides of his eyes he couldn't tell.

_// So much, I want this, I need this. I want you…//_

He heard the sounds of the rain pattering on the ground before Sasuke moved almost out of him and he cried out, wanting the warmth and the fullness back again, and then wanting to bite the satisfied smirk from Sasuke's face, as he grinned down at him and thrust back in again. The yell it elicited from Naruto's lips was almost enough to have Sasuke's cumming right there and then like a school boy, the tension and desire in his body had lasted for too long. It was a minute maybe, a minute and a half before Sasuke reached his limit rocking, pushing, tilting harder and faster and heard Naruto…his Naruto call out for more. Finding that secret electric place that made Naruto scream like that over and over, making him writhe, making him want, completing him entirely then and there, he'd ruin him for anyone else. Biting, marking, claiming, owning, telling Naruto he'd never allow, never let him love and be loved again. Listening to Naruto crying out beneath him and the erotic sound of skin sliding on skin, and flesh slapping against flesh drove him over the edge. As Sasuke heard his name on Naruto's lips and collapsed on top of him, breathing hard, spent, wet, hot and cold from the rain, utterly exhausted, he paused, looking down at the drained figure of the blond beneath him.

_Once_, he had said. But even now he knew that to be a lie.

_Once_, if he walked away now, once if he never looked back.

Sasuke meant to, but somehow he knew it wouldn't go how he meant.

The problem was he didn't realise how wrong it would all go.

Once, they had both said, but the barrier was down and dark things knew where he was now, and stalked ever closer.

* * *

A/N Thanks you guys for the reviews and sticking with this! 


	11. Comforting Sounds Part II

**Fish Bird**

**By The Eternity Dragon**

**Chapter 11**: Comforting Sounds part II

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto but sometimes it wakes me up and night and drifts in and out of my head in the middle of chemistry exams. Which is not the best thing when you're trying to remember what Sodium Benzoate is and thinking about how to write a probable ItaNaruSasu a the same time.

A/N: I found this hard to write, I have a bad case of writers block so if any of this seems forced it's because I am literally forcing it. Also this chapter bugged me because it's mostly plot and not the things I want to write. Kisses and chocolate to anyone who can spot the Alien and Doctor Who influence in this chapter, and yes, it skips, because I wanted to write it like this and I hope to god it makes sense. I also get my exam results tomorrow so if you're going to gripe about the tense swap in the last part please don't, I'm really nervous right now and I just left the tense swap because it read better like that, it's unbeta-d I'll push through the beta-d version when I get it.

* * *

"You can't take him!" Naruto was screaming at the top of his voice whilst a distressed nurse and a flustered Jiraiya tried to force him back onto the hospital bed.

"And you're fucking nuts if you think I'm just going to lie here!"

"Calm down, Naruto. Just _calm down_!"

The words, although spoken in a placating manner seemed only to distress the blond youth further, he cussed, cursed, spat and kicked up at the middle-aged man and young red haired nurse pinning his body to the bed. The drip went skidding across the room, the needle ripping from his arm dribbling a thin trail of blood behind it. "**Naruto!**" Jiraiya roared as the foundations of the bed began to squeak and groan, "Don't make me ask them to sedate you!"

The threat of narcotics stopped the stream of incoherent swear words, Naruto opened his eyes wide so the dried tears at the side of his eyes could be seen plainly,

"I won't let you…" he said his voice falling and rising like that of a sob, "I won't let you take him from me…."

As his mentor applied pressure onto both his shoulders this time Naruto allowed the intensity to make his spine bend and curve. Dully the blond wondered if everyone else could hear the own sound of his heart breaking inside his chest. Jiraiya once again took a seat by his bedside looking a little less rattled, and shooed the nurse out of the room crossing his arms over his chest. He was so distracted he had forgotten to sexually harass her, which could only represent how desperate the current situation actually was.

His own white hair falling like a shaggy dog's over his wide shoulders, he said in stern tones (conveniently) changing the subject "And that's all you can remember?"

Naruto closed his blue eyes again, his mouth turned down into an uncharacteristic snarl, "Yes, that's _all_ I can remember. Those things came out of nowhere and attacked us, just two of them, out of the darkness. I never even saw them coming."

"And Sasuke did?"

This statement ignited a slightly irate response in Naruto, a snapping reply of: "That's what I _said_." and a scornful hiss on the out-breath.

"You're sure there aren't more, you didn't see-"

"God damn it! _**I-don't-know-okay?**_" Naruto all but yelled this time, seizing the jug of water on the bedside table and throwing it at Jiraiya, who was not best pleased to be drenched by cold drinking water at half past four on a particularly cold winter's afternoon.

"If you didn't look at them they'd vanish and come somewhere up behind you, one turned to stone if you looked at it and then if you looked away, or just even blinked it wouldn't be in the same place as before you'd blinked. The other one just seemed to be everywhere at once, and it would make this hissing sound and unhinge its jaw…" Naruto shuddered, "That would be just before it attacked, it would never come at you from the front, just from the side. You'd hear it coming but it would be too late, if you looked away at it the other thing would get you. They're impossible to fight alone…If I hadn't have been with Sasuke I would have been-"

"If you hadn't of been with _**Sasuke**_," Jiraiya hollered at him, bounding up from the bedside chair and spraying water all over the room in a fit of fury, "none of this madhouse would have happened. If you hadn't of broken the rules, if you had just _listened_!"

"Don't lecture me!" Naruto bellowed right back again unquailed by the red and purple spots on Jiraiya's cheeks, "you're the one that was always going off and doing stupid things despite what everyone else says!"

"But I don't put the whole village in danger by doing so do I?" was the stabbing reprimand that delved into the blond's conscience like a meat cleaver to raw flesh. The statement was accompanied by an almighty crash as Jiraiya slammed his closed fists into the white washed windowsill ledge.

"I knew Tsunade was too soft on you, letting him stay like that with you! It was an act of lunacy! He tells nothing but lies and lets everyone except himself take the fall for his own actions, he almost got you **killed** last night. He led those things right to you!"

"He did not!" Naruto screeched back at Jiraiya, his limbs shaking with anger and his heart pounding like a drum inside his throat, "They found us, it was my fault, I wouldn't listen, I didn't want to-to…" he faltered for a second, he hadn't wanted to leave Sasuke, or have Sasuke leave him. Like an old black and white movie images floated up into the forefront of his subconscious, Sasuke kissing him again, touching his hand, Naruto wondering if the slide of liquid on Sasuke's face was made from rain or tears. Desperate heart wrenching loneliness and a moment of utter madness when Sasuke had turned round and asked Naruto to go with him, and the plight and current of desire and temptation that had coursed through Naruto. Like he was slowly drowning inside of his own inner confliction, half of him had moved and the other half had not, until he had stumbled and had fallen to the ground laughing and crying.

_// Don't ask me to leave everything for you Sasuke; don't ask me to destroy my life for you. Don't ask me to give you exactly what I can never give you. I tried to open my life to you; you didn't want to become a part of it. //_

And in the moment where Sasuke had turned round with panic in his eyes and told Naruto to run, he hadn't moved. Not until Sasuke had grabbed him by the wrist and made him run; but by that time it was already too late. Those _things_ had caught their scent, their essence, and their chakra, whatever method they were hunting by and had pursued. It had been the singularly most frightening thing Naruto had ever experienced, the wood had echoed with obscene inhuman laughter, that had seemed to emanate from the rocks and the ground itself, raking their ear drums and lodging in their brain. Something gulping, swallowing, and chuckling as it had moved closer and closer and all the time he had felt Sasuke next to him, "Don't blink." He'd kept saying, "Don't look away from them, blink and you're dead. Just keep looking at them!"

"Sasuke wasn't trying to kill me." Naruto said on a falling note to Jiraiya, the anger draining from his body like rainwater. "He was trying to protect me, all bloody and mangled he got…but he wouldn't let them touch me."

"Did they seem at all interested in you?"

Naruto shrugged, his back ached and sent zipping ripples of nerves down his spinal column, "Once I tried to beat the shit out of them, yeah. Then they were plenty interested, but not before. They just stood there looking at Sasuke and laughing-or swallowing all dry and scratchy…Or-or at least I think they were looking…They didn't have eyes so it was hard to tell."

"Then those things were after him." Jiraiya said derisively, putting his hands on his hips and nodding, "The council is not going to like this at all. If Kakashi hadn't found you, I'd hate to imagine what might have happened to you…"

"I want to see Sasuke," Naruto said quietly rolling the material of the bed sheet in between his fingers, "I want to know if he's all right."

Jiraiya puffed up like a swollen bullfrog, "You will be doing _no_ such thing Naruto, I never want you to look at him again, let alone _speak_ to him!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" the Kitsune retaliated his irises becoming less curved as his temper once again rose to a peak.

"That's exactly what I'll do!" Jiraiya roared right back at him sharing a sudden disturbing likeness to Gamabunta about to hurl out a flaming spitball.

"No one else seems to know what's good for you, and it'll be over my dead corpse before I let you ever again see that boy who ran off and betrayed you. You have never once in your life taken the sensible course of action, you never listen; you never do what I tell you! You are a much-loved nuisance and a precious thorn in my side as well as being the obnoxious brat I never had! And **damnit** if I am ever going to allow you to put yourself in such a dangerous situation again! Do you hear me you demented little snot? I have not wasted years of my life tutoring and looking after you just for you to run away with that Uchiha child and for him to slit your throat in the middle of the night!"

"He's not about to kill me!"

"And on whose authority is that?" Jiraiya all but spat at his protégée, the highest scorn and revulsion in his mouth and eyes, "_Yours?_ I swear to the blue blustering heaven and the spear that pierced the world, that if my hair weren't already white you would have turned it that colour. You precarious midget of terror! Your sheer idiocy could build mountains! I am not about to let you sweet-talk me into believing you again. You're lucky you're not half dead!"

"No one is asking you to worry about me." Naruto hissed acidly up at Jiraiya, feeling stubborn, petulant and hurt all at the same time.

His mentor made a snorting noise and turned to look out of the window, still seething. Naruto looked over to the bowl of fruit on the beside table and felt his head throb from where he'd hit it stumbling backwards in the dark last night and falling head first onto rocky ground.

"But I am grateful that you do." He said finally swallowing his pride and dropping his gaze to his clenched hands resting on his knees, the pale watery light of the sun drifted in under the blinds and Naruto was familiar once again with the dilute smell of disinfectant that seems to reside in all hospitals.

"You're an insolent monkey." Jiraiya said in a slightly less aggressive tone of voice, still staring out of the window, there was a pause, and then, summoning up resolution from the tips of his toes finished with "But that's the way it's meant to be, am I right?"

He looked carefully away from the Kitsune as the blond scrunched up his face swallowing down the sudden and awkward lump that had lodged in his throat, his insides felt lucid and shaky as Naruto squashed the impulse to hold out his arms and be comforted by a father that he'd never had and always wanted.

"You need to be careful what you say old man," he replied some moments later jokingly, "or I'll think you're getting soft."

Jiraiya let out a small chuckle at this and pulled his chair back up again to the bed.

"So tell me how that cactus I gave you is doing."

* * *

On the outside of the door.

"Have they finished talking?" Shikamaru whispered urgently down to Kiba who had a glass and his ear pressed against the hospital room door.

"Stop making so much noise! I can't hear properly!" His friend hissed up at him, thoroughly uncomfortable with the fact he was being squashed against the door as Shikamaru shielded him from most of the prying eyes of the passers by.

"Hurry up then!" was the exasperated response he received, "If someone catches us here we are officially dead Kiba. By the time they let Naruto out of hospital it's all going to be too late and everything will be over. And by that I mean the council will most likely have voted in favour of killing Sasuke. He's too much of a liability to them, there's no profit in redeeming him now and they're too afraid of this new threat to recognise the fact that he might actually be of some use to us."

Kiba twisted the glass around on the door as one would twist the knob of a radio trying for a better reception.

"You still think it's connected to Sakura don't you?" he said in rather demonic tones and the sound of raised voices inside the room filtered plainly through the wooden door.

"It's no good." He said pulling back and putting the glass back in his pocket, "They're arguing again. That could take hours."

Shikamaru pulled a prickly expression that looked odd on his angular face, "This is such a hassle," he moaned, "but we'll have to do it this way…" and muttering to himself he walked off down the corridor, Kiba trotting behind him.

"What are we doing now?" the auburn haired inquisitive youth asked eagerly, almost wagging an invisible tail with glee.

"We are going to climb outside his window and wait for that room to empty." Shikamaru told him in hushed undertones, "You are going to be quiet and listen to whatever I have to say and are going to make no argument about it **whatsoever**. Do you understand?"

Kiba made a squeaky noise on the white tiled floor with his shoe and said in a forlorn and moping voice "What haven't you told me Maru? You're keeping secrets from me again, aren't you?"

Shikamaru rubbed his temples with his fingertips, "Dear god, you give me a headache sometimes! I have not had the opportunity to tell you the full plan because I have been summoned to the Hokage's office and council meetings a grand total of sixteen times in the past two days. The elders are in an uproar and Tsunade-sama is being placed under pressure to uphold treaties with other countries for armed forces and resources. Whatever it was that hit Sound seems to be coming this way and no body knows quite what on earth it is. Countries are signing hasty treaties promising alliances with other countries they'd usually never dream of trusting."

"But-" Kiba began slowly, careful to keep his voice down, "I would have thought that was a good thing. Signing treaties and all that, it forces countries to come closer together."

"When countries are forced to come closer together," Shikamaru said in cold and surly undertones as they passed through the hospitals main entrance, "war is often the result. Especially underneath such stressful circumstances, especially when there's no clear division line of who the enemy is. People being to suspect one another of betrayal, or even worse turn on them. It's a lose-lose situation really, and I have a feeling that the leaders might be losing sight of the real situation. They're so stupidly tied up in their own internal politics you see."

Kiba gave him a blank look and Shikamaru couldn't stop the whisper of a smile from dancing across his face, "Never mind," he said lightly, "I'm not about to explain our whole political system to you."

Kiba gave him a playful smile that revealed every single one of his sharp and glistening white teeth.

"It does reassure me when you tell me things like that, you can't have possibly made that all up."

Shikamaru gave him odd look, regarding the blissful expression with some quandary.

"Why, I hesitate to ask, should that matter?"

"Because," Kiba said, "I always worry you might be sneaking out behind my back and spending your free time with other people apart from me. I was suspicious the other day you know, when you told me I couldn't stay over."

"That's because I knew if I let you stay the night you'd just end up sleeping in my bed and I'd spend a sleepless night with _your_ feet in _my_ face."

"I worried perhaps that you might be letting someone else sleep in your bed," Kiba continued quite ignoring Shikamaru's rational digression down the road of sanity, "But I knew nothing could get in the way of 'us', Maru. Although I don't like this idea of you keeping secrets from me."

"Pray tell, dear dimwit, what exactly you mean by _'us'_?"

Kiba nudged him playfully in the ribs, "Oh Maru!" he exclaimed in dramatic tones, getting down on one knee in a manner that caused several people to stop and stare, "Nothing can stop this love!"

No one was surprised when Shikamaru kicked him.

Several minutes later they were sitting legs swinging from a tree facing the side of the hospital that showed Naruto's room window. Shikamaru was quick to point out the ANBU guard on the adjacent side guarding the outside of what seemed to be a seamless white wall of the building.

"The same room they were holding him in last time…" he said slowly more to himself than Kiba whom had strict instructions to keep his eyes glued to Naruto's window so that they would be prepared the instant that the blond was left without company.

"I suppose they'll be moving him to a holding cell as soon as he's stable enough…. We'd have no hope of breaking into that, coupled with the fact that they'll have more surveillance not to mention double the guards…Mind you if I was in charge I'd make it look like he'd been unable to pull through in the OR…or that there had been some fatal complication later in Intensive Care…shit this is bad. We have less time than I thought we did. It's going to have to be tonight or-OUCH!"

Shikamaru looked up from his musings scowling at the would be bruise on his left arm from where Kiba Inuzuka had pinched him ruthlessly hard.

"I am sorry to have interrupted the ruminations of your fantastic min Oh-Great-One, but I thought you'd like to know, the Sannin just left."

Kiba doubted if he had ever seen his lazy-assed brown haired friend more motivated.

With Akamaru positioned far below the window to act as sentinel they both leapt lightly onto the sill making sure to make as little noise as was possible, and for a ninja it is less then the faintest stirring of a leaf in a small breeze. The act of deception of course was not to be seen by Naruto-because if Naruto saw them first he was bound to make a fuss, and a fuss and Naruto was going to draw attention, and with attention came people. But Shikamaru was damned if he was going to let people know he and Kiba had come to see Naruto this afternoon not when they had so painstakingly created Kage-bushin to wait in the lobby for an interminable length of time whilst the receptionist told the clones over and over again that "Uzumaki was not allowed visitors other than those approved of by Tsunade-sama."

'The plan' required that no one should see them at all, so as Shikamaru sent the shadow bind through the window to join with the shadow of the blind and sneak and slip across the room and onto the one bed where it held it's victim fast and deadly silent as Kiba heaved up the window and flashed across the room to press his body and ear to the door to check that no one was coming Shikamaru knew that everything was going to follow in accordance as smooth as clockwork.

"Enjoying yourself?" Kiba asked his friend cheerfully as Shikamaru slid in through the open window, he had a big grin plastered onto his rough features and all of the excitement of a small puppy, whatever Shikamaru Nara was planning, it was big, Kiba was absolutely certain of this. It gave him Goosebumps just thinking about it.

The only way Naruto Uzumaki was able to express shock underneath the full body bind was a slight contraction of his black irises and a deeper tension in the line of his mouth.

"Sorry to intrude." Shikamaru said allowing himself to sit casually in the visitor's chair with the air of someone who is about to announce afternoon tea.

"But I thought it would be prudent for us to have a little talk."

Naruto made a strained, confined noise, which sounded a lot like _**"Mrrfurlurh!"**_ to which both Kiba and Shikamaru placed fingers over their mouths urging that silence was of the up most vitality. Naruto was still pulling an angry and somewhat bemused expression, frowning and wiggling his toes in violent succession until Shikamaru slowly but surely let the Jutsu slide, with frenzied (and somewhat unnecessary) hand movements from Kiba to remind him to keep his voice low.

As Naruto felt his tongue unstuck from the roof of his mouth and his body given once again the delightful liberty of freedom he said in a hoarse rasping voice tired and strained from shouting at Jiraiya for two hours straight, "What in the good name of Miso Ramen are you doing?"

There was a slightly apprehensive air about him as if he believed Shikamaru was on the edge of berating him for doing something entirely stupid beyond all belief and then nearly getting himself killed afterwards.

He deserved the lecture he didn't doubt it for a second, but god damnit, couldn't they wait until they released him? Was Shikamaru and Kiba's wrath so poignant that they had had to force their way in through the hospital window, and why in heavens name was Kiba standing by the door in that odd manner? Poised as if he was about to unleash some mind bending Jutsu. What was wrong with them? What was wrong with…what was wrong?

Naruto's face went through a chain of expressions and like a line of dominoes they each fell one by one before the other until a slightly panicked look stole over the contours of his face, and his eyes became glassy and somewhat intense like peacock blue marbles in a basin of salt.

"What happened?"

"It's not so much _'What'_ Naruto, as to, we don't actually know."

And if that wasn't the most ambiguous answer he'd ever received in his life he'd stand on his head and swallow marshmallows for a living. He saw Kiba out of the corner of his eye give Shikamaru 'a look'.

In his anxiety he almost forgot to keep his voice lowered, "Is it Sasuke? Is he dying? Jiraiya told me he was stable but come to think of it he would tell me that to stop me from going down there and making sure myself, only I believed Jiraiya because he got so terribly mad when I doubted him. God I've killed him haven't I? He's dying isn't he? It's all my fault, I didn't run when he told me to and he ended up getting all bloody and mangled because I didn't know what those things were. I still don't know! It was so dark and I couldn't seem to move properly, but there was such an awful lot of blood, and then I slipped and hit my head on some rock and then-and then…"

"And that's when Kakashi found you." Shikamaru said simply, he had his hands folded on his lap and the serious and care worn expression of someone twice his age, Naruto would have likened it to looking into the eyes of his great grandfather…had he ever know or met his great grandfather that is.

"I was stone cold out." Was Naruto's feeble reply, but Shikamaru Nara ignored the comment and pressed on, "He was coming back that way because of the last mission he'd been sent on, except he wasn't able to complete that mission for reasons he has been explaining to the Hokage and members of the high council."

Naruto felt his fingers pluck and dig into the mattress beneath the cotton sheet he was lying on; his stomach seemed to have become icy cold whilst his heart pumped erratically in his chest.

"W-why…why couldn't he finish it?" There was nervous and dreadful trepidation in his voice, as if he didn't really want to hear the answer, he didn't want to hear words that could shake and shatter the foundations of his life he had so painstakingly hewn from nothing. They were the things that made him open his eyes and open his mouth to breathe. If he lost them, he lost himself too.

"Naruto," Shikamaru said gently, "the countries are at the brink of war due to a new terror coming in from the North, it's ravaging the land of the waterfall and moving its way across to the land of earth even as we speak. It's already decimated Sound, and the rumour is that what ever it was originated either there or within the ranks of the organisation of Akatsuki because now both or gone."

"Basically," Kiba interjected from the door, still looking excited as if Shikamaru was reciting the script from his favourite action movie, "this could be Orochimaru's pet monster out for a little game of hide and go smash to smithereens."

Shikamaru gave Inuzuka a sharp look at this and snapped, "Aren't you supposed to be watching the door?" to which Kiba looked rather sheepish.

"But what does this have to do with Sakura?" Naruto asked; he could feel dread slipping and sliding across his insides running like liquid ice down his arteries.

This time Shikamaru hesitated for second, leant forwards slightly in the chair and gripped the arm rests hard.

"Because where she's been stationed... has just been reported to have been hit."

Both Kiba and Shikamaru had been expecting the singular reaction from Naruto to yell **"What?"** as well as simultaneously throwing himself out of the squeaking hospital bed and onto the tiled floor.

Kiba made a fast clapping motion over the doorframe to dispel any noise from penetrating through the wood and there was a blue flash of a Jutsu filling the room with its eerie and ethereal glow.

In a flash Shikamaru had Naruto by both wrists forcing him back into the wall and trying to calm him down.

"I have to do something!" the blond was saying almost incoherently vivid images of dark things watching him from trees with eyes that reflected the silvered moonlight. Things that didn't seem to belong amongst the living, but rather demons escaped from the Land of Yomi.

"They'll kill her! They'll kill all of them! Sai went too! They could all be dying and you're all just standing here telling me this! Why isn't somebody doing something?!"

"Because they won't let us!" Shikamaru hissed back at him starting to wish he'd left the shadow Jutsu bind in tact, "The Elders won't allow a rescue mission because they fear the threat from the North will follow a rescue team back here and destroy us all. They'd rather sit behind the great walls of the towers and allow the menace to sweep on by without dirtying their noses in it."

"Are you implying I do **nothing**?" Naruto all but spat at his angular eyed friend, "You're going to ask me to sit pretty and twiddle my thumbs and take up needle work in the high hopes that she might come wondering back all on her own? You're all cowards and idiots if you think I'm just going to sit here, I don't care if those things are swarming all over where she is I'll-"

"Don't be ridiculous!" and to Naruto's surprise it was Kiba who stood behind Shikamaru's back glowering acidly at him, mouth curled in a dog like snarl.

"He's spent last night and all day coming up with what ever he's come up with, forgoing sleep and food and been arguing with everyone until he's blue in the face. I know you're damned twisted up into forty five and a half knots about this but don't take it out on Maru."

Naruto's enraged and scintillating cornflower blue eyes caught his, literally simmering with a fire that threatened to crack and shatter all the windows in the building.

"Please don't take it out on me either?" He added looking nervous and licking his lips.

"Naruto," Shikamaru began slowly speaking as if Kiba had said nothing at all, "in order for them to act they are going to take more leverage. Like you I think they should be doing everything possible to get Sakura and her team back, the Hokage-sama is adamant about it as I am but they're over ruling her as we speak. And tonight they'll be debating on whether or not they kill the last surviving Uchiha."

At this Naruto's eyes grew wide again and the aggression on his face was lost to blind fear as the words he was forming on his tongue whispered and melted into nothingness.

"Are you really that surprised? They were looking for an invitation to kill him anyway; you've provided the perfect excuse. Those things were following _him_, the second he left the protected area they found him. Naruto he knows about it, he's kept it a secret from all of us and I can't forgive him for that but if there's a chance we can use the information to rescue Sakura then I'm willing to take this chance and try and save his life."

"S-save his life?" Naruto asked breathless, the flood of information almost too much for his brain to handle, Kiba too was looking at Shikamaru perplexed, obviously he'd never heard of this part of the plan either and asked with a frown that crumpled his forehead like a blood hound's: "How are _we,_ begging my plain speaking, but the two of us and an invalid, going to save Sasuke's life?"

Slowly Shikamaru relinquished his grip on Naruto's wrists and took a step backwards.

"Kiba, what is it in life that you've always wanted to do?"

There was a pause and then "Have a threesome with two lesbians?"

"The **OTHER ONE**! You idiot!" Shikamaru all but shouted at him, bringing up his fingers to massage his temples and the tick under his left eye. Lack of sleep was making him seriously short tempered.

Kiba thought for a moment, and then in a low and awed voice, "_A heist?_ Shikamaru of the Nara Clan you better not be teasing me, my delicate heart will not take it."

"That is exactly what we are doing in exactly six hours time, timing is of the essence because that's the time at which the ANBU guard shifts and I'm trusting everything to go on schedule and for the council to still be going on. I've already worked out exactly what it is we need to do, and it's _just_ going to be the three of us in this, we can't risk getting anyone else involved and neither can Kiba and I be suspected of being part of this plan in anyway form or manner. Naruto it has to seem as if you've come up with this plan all by yourself but it's going to require an excess of chakra and acting on your behalf as well as mine, and yours Kiba so both of you pay attention I'm going to explain exactly what I need you to do."

As Shikamaru had Kiba check the door and outside corridor again in order to stem the flow of neurotic belief that they were being listened in upon he began to very carefully lay out the plan before Naruto as one would lay out a pack of playing cards one by one.

"Wait." said Kiba coming and squatting by where they were all sitting on the floor, it was the nightshift now and movements in the hospital had quietened down somewhat the heavy distraction Jutsu Kiba had placed on the door was doing a good job of perturbing people away from it.

"Wait!" Kiba said again as if he had just missed where Shikamaru had placed the joker.

"What part am I playing in all of this?"

Shikamaru gave Kiba a long look from underneath his short brown lashes, "You already promised to do anything I asked you to already remember?"

A highly distrustful expression rose like a wave across Kiba Inuzuka's open face, "You're kidding…you don't want me to…**again?!**"

They all knew the answer before Shikamaru even spoke.

"I need you to be our decoy."

The sinking feeling in his stomach was only going to get worse.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was having a strange dream, stranger than the dreams that had come before which had been cruel and unpleasant, hot and vivid images dancing across his subconscious as the drugs he'd been given kept his brain in a constant state of delirium. His hands were bound and so where his feet, that much he knew, and the part of his mind that was barely conscious told him that there was also someone in the room with him at all times. It was an awful kind of half wakening, every half an hour or so someone would wrench his head up and shine a light into his eye. He was so tired, he could hardly move his brain seemed unable to command his body no matter how much he willed it. It was like swimming through black treacle, his lungs were too small, his head lying sloping down onto his chest at an awkward position squashing his windpipe and starving him slowly of oxygen, and despite the fact that he often thought of moving his head to relieve the pain, despite the fact that he was panicking because he was slowly suffocating he just could not move.

Once or twice he made noises, and the persons in the room became tense, and he sensed them all looking at him. That was another strange thing, his left arm was tingling acutely from where that…demon had bit him, the part where the black orb had bee embedded in his skin.

He wished he could force his eyes open to look at it properly, had the 'demon' ripped it out of his body entirely? Or just dislodged it's effect a bit? If so, did that mean he could use chakra in that arm now? Once or twice he managed to flex his fingers, but that was about all he could manage and it cost him awful effort to do so. On more than a few occasions he'd said Naruto's name out loud, half driven crazy by not knowing where he was, not knowing what had happened to him. After 'they'd' come everything had gone blank in a red shock of blood, he remembered running, he remembered eyes, he remembered yelling, he remembered Naruto standing against his back saying something about not dying, because he wasn't read yet. He remembered doing something foolish and stupid, he remembered asking Naruto to come with him even though it was an absolute impossibility, and he remembered that this was all his fault in the first place.

Slowly his mind was slipping from the conscious surroundings, it slipped through the walls, up pipes, through brick, mortar and concrete, through air and then back down again. He could hear the rustling of paper and the musty sweaty smell of a room holding too many people. They were arguing, arguing over him…

* * *

_"He should be killed!" an old man with his eyes gunked up age was yelling, his jowls quivered as he shook his head, "If we kill him there will be nothing to lead those monsters to us!"_

_"We can't make a public execution of it!" Another old woman cried out, her hair a shocking white, milky eyes that swept across the floor of the council room, "Kill him quietly, poison him. No one knows he's here. Let the crows eat his corpse and burn the skeleton. The Uchiha clan became extinct a long time ago, who knows he could be more powerful than his brother!"_

_"I will not allow you to murder him!" a blonde woman said, she was sitting in the Hokage's chair, fingertips pressed hard together, "I don't care if he's barmy, murder is murder on a defenceless victim. He hasn't harmed anyone!"_

_So the line of talk continued in this manner round and round in circles it went until there was a commotion outside the door, yelling in the corridor and the sound of someone being slammed into a wall._

_"Kiba stop!" Someone was yelling, the dull crunch of bone, a dog howling and the splintering of plaster._

_"Damnit Neji let me through you idiot! This is important!"_

_"No ones allowed to go in, they're 'in council'. You know the rules!"_

_Kiba obviously wasn't paying attention to the rules because something big hurtled itself against the door and the hinges creaked and moaned._

_"Kiba Inuzuka?" The blonde woman called, standing up whilst members of the council muttered and whispered around her, eyes narrowed._

_"He's gone Hokage-sama!" Kiba was yelling, there was a funny lucid pitch to his voice, "Naruto's gone to the South Gate! He's going to rescue Sakura himself!"_

_The door was flung open as the blonde woman's attendant; a pretty thing with short dark hair ran towards it. Kiba stood there looking frantic, Akamaru behind him barking and snarling at the ANBU members behind them, Neji at the forefront long dark hair spooling down his back._

_"How do you know?" the Hokage was shouting over the commotion._

_"They let us in to see him, he was panicking. Jiraiya told him something he didn't believe it. Made me eat something…knocked me…us out…went. Kept talking about the South Gate…borders, Land of the Waterfall."_

_Kiba stood in the middle of the commotion, blinking oddly, pupils strangely black, wide and dilated._

_"There are," he began, then swayed on the spot, "pretty blinking light…like firefly, making everything all shiny and…" he made a sweeping motion with his hand as if swatting an invisible fly, the blond Hokage got up abruptly from her chair._

_"Bendy and…so light. Pretty, pretty lights…" Kiba was saying, his eyes now entirely unfocused and fell backwards, unconscious._

_Akamaru howled._

_Neji actually pulled off his ANBU mask, squatting forwards and nudging Kiba with his foot, disbelieving expression on his face._

_"Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?" he asked in a vaguely confused voice._

_The blonde Hokage's attendant fell upon the auburn haired youth's limp body, putting her fingers to his pulse and pulling an eye open, "Narcotics," she said softly, "he's been doped."_

_The room was in an uproar, "Neji!" the Hokage yelled, her face suddenly all business, warm brown eyes hard and commanding._

_"Take your squad and block off the South Gate, Naruto can't be allowed to leave the Village under any circumstances. Have more reinforcements, even in his current state there's the possibility he could still break through your ranks."_

_She turned about blonde in pig tails flying over her shoulders, "Where is Kakashi?"_

_"At home resting."_

_"For God sakes, **GET HIM UP THEN!** Have him take a team to the hospital, if I know Naruto he's going to break Sasuke out too, he might have already done, or he's planning to. He must be stopped!"_

* * *

In his odd ethereal like form Sasuke can feel himself being sucked down into his own body again, his senses whirling he can feel people running around him, ANBU guard he thinks dimly, the drip is no longer in his arm, it hasn't been for sometime. He can think clearer now, murky little bits of thought and movement coming back to him in snatches.

Someone's yelling and it rings and hurts the inside of his head.

Then the whole world seems to go insane, the door explodes, bits of wood shower down in a rain of splinters, at the same time the opposite wall caves in, brick and plaster crumbling, a choking cloud of dust rising angrily into the room.

The guards are yelling, as a stream of persons move in, there's the pop and smoke of a henge being initiated from the centre of the room and someone yelling that they all look the same.

Sasuke tries to raise his head but the drugs still keep his limbs numb so he can't even struggle as someone forces a hand over his mouth in a suffocating grip and wrenches his body out of the restraints.

"He's got the Uchiha!" Someone is shouting, and Sasuke can feel warm chakra all over him, can feel himself being pulled up against a wall, fingers still pushing into his mouth fingers spanning across his neck, rough hard grip. He's going to be sick from the motion and the noise but the Jutsu keeps him immobile and silent.

"I've been substituted." He thinks dimly and hears people running after what they think is him, they're not aware he's right here; he must look like something else. They must look like something else, because someone is yelling instructions over to where they are, he knows that voice he's heard that voice in Naruto's house before. The brown haired one with the slanting eyes and lazy voice.

"He's gone that way!" he's shouting giving commands, "Take the route around the river, cut them off, he's not going to get very far!"

The sound of more running, then silence.

The person with their hand over Sasuke's mouth is breathing hard, like he has precious seconds to do this in, his voice is hoarse, exhausted and quaking with a nervous energy.

Sasuke tries to open his eyes and speak as he feels his body slide down the wall, some metal needle stuck into his skin. All the holes he has from that, he feels like a human pincushion.

There's a slight pause and then his heart begins to beat faster and faster inside his chest, his veins dilate and blood rushes frantically about his body in all directions.

"I don't!" he manages to say not that it means anything but it's the first thing to come out, his eyes opening to a bleary world too bright and sees sunshine bright hair and cornflower blue eyes.

Naruto is making comforting sounds, shushing noises, pulling him up, ripping the restraints from his arms and legs, tugging him gently in one direction and Sasuke, still incoherent follows.

"We have to go fast." Naruto is saying, and Sasuke realises they're already in a line of trees, wind whistling past his face, he's on Naruto's back, wind whipping in his face, they're heading from the look of the sun North. Towards the North Gate, he thinks dimly, towards the Land of Y-

"**NO!**" he yells, and the last of the drugs dispel from his system, and he pushes himself off Naruto, falling to his knees and throws up violently.

"No I'm not, you can't go there, they'll kill you!"

Naruto watches as Sasuke pale and shaking, barely standing, hands against the trunk of a tree glowers at him, eyes like coal and twice as hard as diamond.

"It's too late!" Naruto snarls back at him, all orange and black, teeth white and glinting in the morning sunlight.

"I've made the decision, you're coming with me. You know what these things are so I have a better chance of survival if you come too, besides they'll have just killed you anyway if you'd stayed there."

Sasuke was incensed.

//_Dare he_, _how dare he?!_ _How dare he make a decision like this on his own like this? Just take off and expect me to follow him like some pet dog!//_

"Don't tell me what to do, Idiot!"

"I am telling you what to do Asshole so get used to it, you don't get a choice in this. We're going **now**."

"You broke the rules, you let me out. I'm not leading them to you Naruto, they'll kill you. They'll kill everyone!"

Naruto's reply comes back dripping like acid rain, he seems very tall right now, right here, like someone Sasuke doesn't know, and it's hard to imagine that just over twenty four hours Naruto was holding onto Sasuke like he thought his life might crumble and fall apart without him. Now Naruto is issuing orders and demanding that they be followed. He's holding Sasuke hostage whilst Sasuke's got back what he wanted to freedom to escape, but then again he's not even sure if that's what he wanted to do in the first place.

"You'll do it, because you owe me. Because you lied, because you knew that this was going to happen."

Sasuke sneers, that ugly mocking expression, face very hard, blue black shadows under his ivory pale skin, thin veins running like indigo ink under a thin layer of milk. The shadows of the trees cast sinister shadows over his skin.

"I won't," he hisses, "they're going to come after you, they'll drag you back. They'll lock you up, go back now and pretend I forced you to free me, I put a Jutsu on you, possessed you, put you in a trance. Make something up now and you'll be fine. If you leave with me Naruto they'll make you an outlaw, a missing Nin, this isn't what you want to do. This threat, those things, they'll go. I'll make sure they'll go and you can go right back to your happy families all over again."

Naruto's face was as hard and as expressionless as slate when he answered, "It's not about what I want, I have to save Sakura."

Something inside of Sasuke snapped at that moment, it felt like indescribable pain but not of the physical sort that he could deal with. The pain that swept over him now made him want to scream, want to yell, want to hurt. The shock vibrated through him like the foaming waves before a storm, churning against the sharp edges of rocks before withdrawing completely and surging forwards in an unstoppable force.

Sasuke really wanted to hurt Naruto, he wanted to gauge his eyes out and rip out his tongue, he wanted to break his nose and yank out his teeth, to bite, scratch and maim. A flicker of anger like black flame licked across his face and then he turned and ran it didn't matter in what direction, just as long as Naruto couldn't find him. He never wanted to look at Naruto again, never mind go with him. He'd find the devil and end this, and it wouldn't be for Naruto, it would be because he had to, because it was all his fault really, and not because Naruto felt like he was the most important thing in the whole world to him not because he felt things about Naruto he knew he shouldn't…not because….

There was a yell behind him; Naruto was shouting "Sasuke!" and "Stop!" closely pursing but the dense undergrowth was making it hard.

Creepers latched onto and drags out great slabs of Sasuke's skin, driving into the places where his clothes were the thinnest, there was blood and his wrists and a scrape across the side of his face when Naruto threw himself and Sasuke's back and they fell together and rolled down a bank and fell together into the mud.

Sasuke fought viciously, trying to push Naruto off him and terrified that if Naruto kissed him he'd fall into a whimpering puddle of mush and let Naruto do or say anything to him. It was crazy, he was cussing and cursing, bucking his hips, writhing like someone had shoved an electric wire down his spine and the Kitsune was pinning his hands over his head making hand signs with one hand, he'd never seen Naruto do that before. He was saying something too, eyes glassy with concentration and then it happened, in a brief second where he slammed both his hands over Sasuke's heart unpinning him whilst a small wave of what felt like pins and needles ran and shivered throughout all of Sasuke's body.

Then Naruto fell to the side with his eyes closed breathing shallowly.

Sasuke didn't wait to find out what had happened, he just sprang up and ran through the small stream and jumped into the branches of the overhead trees leaving Naruto behind him. He must have got about two hundred meters away until he suddenly stopped, and collapsed to his knees because he was in such indescribable pain he couldn't even move.

It was like the time he'd opened the living room door to find his parents dead bodies lying on the bare floor boards, a drying pool of carmine blood slowly flowing out and across the room. It was like the time Itachi had rammed him up against the wall and told him how weak and pathetic he was, it was like the time when he had been so weak he hadn't even been able to make Itachi look at him without seeing right through him.

Sasuke moaned, he put his hands on the hard rocky earth feeling gravel and grit beneath his fingertips and attempted to push himself up. If anything the feeling just got worse, his stomach wretched, trying to vomit, but all that came up was bile, lime green bile, which curdled with the earth and stank of acid and rancid meat.

"See," said Naruto coming up behind him, his face was pale and ashen grey, he looked like he might be sick too, "now you have to. This thing is not going to go away until we get there, once we get over the border of the Land of the Waterfall this thing will dispel. Not before, even I can't get rid of it."

He sank to the ground looking at Sasuke who was breathing like a rabbit, face screwed up refusing to look at Naruto, seething with rage and anger.

"You made me do this Sasuke," the blond said, hating himself even more with each passing second, "I didn't want to, I have a bad feeling about it."

They were famous last words, the sort of words that always turn out to be right.

* * *

A/N UGH, just UGH. There's angsty sex in the next chapter and I really rather hate this one, coupled with the fact I am sure I failed all my exams. I just had to get this posted, and if it was confusing I'm sorry, Naruto and Shikamaru are going to explain the details next chapter, but nobody guessed this was going to happen and I think you guys still don't have any idea of where I'm going with it. And thank you for all your reviews last chapter, I even got a few emails telling me how you read and didn't review, they made me laugh and really cheered me up thanks guys. I just wish I wasn't so down right now...

Till next time ED

Yes, I know the tense changed in the last bit...I didn't realise until it was too late.


	12. Dream Catch Me when I fall

**Fish Bird**

By The Eternity Dragon

**Disclaimer: **I love you Kishimoto, I honestly, honestly do. Naruto is not my work of art, I'll have my own work of art someday after I've run this out of my system. Now I'll just bask in the contentment of knowing who Naruto's parents are.

**A/N: **Chapter dedicated to Katie, because despite however late or urgent your paper for you professor may be, you appendix is, will forever be and lastly will prove that it's more important then you think it is. Also, thank you for the recs and the song!

**Warning: **Lemon

**Chapter 12: **Dream Catch Me (when I fall)

**UNBETA'D**

* * *

The front door banged open slamming into the wall and sending tremors down Shikamaru's small but tidy one bedroom flat. Shikamaru Nara sat in the kitchen, stooped over a mug of hot black coffee (no sugar) and winced as the sound reverberated in his ears and sliced slowly down his skull. There was only one person in the world who opened his front door like that, came running across the front porch kicking their shoes wildly off one foot and then another, he wasn't disappointed when Kiba Inzuka stuck his head around the door frame and yelled "_Oi, you!_" at him with an accusatory index finger. 

"Do you ever think of knocking?" Shikamaru asked patiently, raising the mug of coffee to his lips and taking a long draught so the caffeine assailed his senses giving him a momentary kick. Outside the sun was sliding slowly behind the horizon, slipping the world into a curtain of seamless darkness.

"For all you know I could have been doing something indecent."

Kiba stood there for a moment, his face oddly flushed and huffing and puffing through his mouth.

"I wouldn't care if you had your trousers round your ankles and were about to hump Ino into the kitchen counter Shikamaru." He announced tartly, puffing out his chest and drawing himself up to full height.

The statement worried Shikamaru more then anything else, he opened his mouth to point out that every relationship, including theirs had _limits_ but he never got past the first syllable because Kiba exploded with the question he had obviously jumped out his hospital window to find the answer to.

"Well, what did the council say? Are they going after Sasuke and Naruto? Are they going to let them go, or…" he gulped and swallowed audibly, "Or are they going to send assassins after them and kill them?"

"I think you'd better sit down." Shikamaru told him simply, deciding to draw the scene out and shuffling the scrolls that were lying on the table in front of him.

Kiba sat.

"The decision the council arrived at, at approximately quarter past five this afternoon was to kill both of them." Shikamaru said austerely getting up to add sugar to the coffee in his hand.

The statement took thirty seconds or more to register in Kiba's brain, he stared at Shikamaru expectantly during the time frame as if waiting for Shikamaru to say more until the silence drilled the statement into fact and the levers of realisation, dread, panic and absolute outrage slotted neatly into place one after the other.

Shikamaru was convinced he heard the thudding clunks of each.

"I-You-**WHAT**?" Bellowed Kiba, scooting back from the table so the chair clattered to the floor and rolled behind him, "_How can you just_ _say it like that?! How can you just sit there and-sit there and…Mother of God what are we going to do?_"

"'_We'_ in that term of voice, mind and frame are going to do nothing Kiba, nothing at all." Shikamaru said firmly but softly, spooning another pile of soft golden brown sugar into the dark liquid mix and stirring the brew contemplatively.

Kiba actually stamped his foot at this, mouth flapping like a sheet on a washing line on a blustery Wednesday morning.

"But they'll be killed, Naruto- you can't… Naruto- don't tell me you're still sore about him bringing Sasuke back, you wouldn't have left him there anyway for all your yammering about sense and other bullshit. I know you, you just wanted to say the right thing but you didn't mean it, you didn't mean it at all. You don't mean it now, we have to do something, we can't just let them die…"

Shikamaru surveyed Kiba analytically; his auburn haired friend was flailing his arms about, jumping up and down on the spot and making half formed arguments as to why the both of them together should go looking for Naruto and Sasuke. Shikamaru of course had already come up with a thousand different scenarios and a thousand reasons why each one of them wouldn't work, he swirled his coffee round the cream coloured mug which he didn't remember buying, but suspected either Ino, Choji, Naruto or Kiba had snuck into his china cupboard because he was too lazy to buy his own.

"Well if you won't go," Kiba all but shouted at him, turning to leave a look of hurt and disbelieving on his face, "I'll go and rescue them myself!"

"No you won't." Shikamaru said gently, his words more effective then bucket full of ice, Kiba stood frozen and then slowly turned on the spot.

"I _what_?" he said in measured and deliberately dangerous tones, it was frightening how much like a wolf he could look sometimes, it was his pupils, dark and dangerous, slit with the anger clouding his face.

"I think it was ten minutes after their decision to kill them, which I'll have you know involved me arguing with everyone in sight and being threatened with permanent prohibition for any promotions into council membership."

"What did you say to that?"

Shikamaru gave him a wry smile, "I told them to shove it up their fat buttocks, and some other things I don't care to repeat, what do think?"

Kiba grinned at him.

"It was at that time anyway that a messenger came in carrying this," and Shikamaru strode over to the table and handed Kiba a photograph of a black and white object about the size of a large cat.

"What is that?" Kiba asked perplexed, turning the photo around in his hands and gazing at it from all angles.

"It's a plaque, can you read the writing?"

Kiba squinted at the photograph, and then said slowly, his words tripping over and into each other as he spoke: _"The People of Konoha Are Respectfully Requested to Rethink Their Position In the World Before the End."_

He looked back up at Shikamaru again, baffled.

"What the hell does that even mean?" he asked in a tone, which sounded like he found the whole thing rather amusing, " 'Are respectfully requested,' and 'In the End' who the hell would write a message like that?"

"Its not _who_," Shikamaru said darkly, "its _what_. That thing just turned up on the Northern Tower without anyone seeing who put it there or why, and you know that place is swarming with guards, literally popping at the seams with them. And there it was sitting like a birthday present for them to find it."

"I don't understand," Kiba said slowly turning the picture over and over again in his hands, "what this has to do with Naruto and Sasuke."

Shikamaru gave him another smile, the type of smile you might give someone to brace them for the worst, the type of nerve steadying smile that comes with the death of loved ones, or the fact that your most beloved set of pants have inexplicably self combusted in the washing machine.

"The thing is," Shikamaru said slowly, motioning for Kiba to sit down again as if this would lessen the pain, "this isn't the first 'message' of this type that we've seen. There have been others, three so far to be exact, one to each of the countries that have been attacked. It's not a message, or an invitation Kiba, it's a warning, a warning that we are next."

Kiba sat, but forgetting that he had previously knocked his chair on the floor beforehand hurtled straight through where he thought the chair was and landed with a loud **'Oof!'** on the floor.

Shikamaru watched the auburn head disappear behind his kitchen table with a small smile on his face, Kiba was an idiot there was no question about it. _His_ idiot none-the-less, and he put his cup of coffee in the sink and walked round the table to help Kiba Inuzuka who was looking both startled and white, up from his puddle on the floor.

"Now," Shikamaru said simply, "they want Sasuke back, they want Naruto back because they are convinced that he can get Sasuke to talk and he's seen them before. Sasuke's withholding information I have no doubt about that, but what the _'whatever-it-is'_ has come from the Land that Sakura is in now, the council is making a mistake not to send Nin out to bring them back, or just explore the land of the waterfall."

"But-but I thought," Kiba stuttered, still coming to grips with things like imminent and painful death, and invasion and oh what was it? Death?!

"I thought it came from Sound and moved out?"

"Oh it hit Sound first," Shikamaru conceded, nodding his head in agreement, "but if you examine the documents the Land of the Waterfall has been having these complaints for years now, it's almost legend. In fact it is Legend, about monsters and a demons caves, under ground networks and mysterious but _gruesome_-" (Kiba blanched.) "Deaths. But people of course have put it down to accident and rogue ninja, but I think now there might be more truth to the case then just some shadowy 'giant monster' devouring flesh and souls. The way these people died is unusual, very unusual, Jiraiya was right it is almost unnatural."

"So…so…" the auburn youth said slowly, shaking his head and swallowing down the sea of panic that was bubbling away beneath his skin, sloshing against his insides and threatening to drown him.

"Who are they sending to retrieve Naruto?"

"Me," Shikamaru said simply, and then he looked at Kiba hard, "and I'm asking you how far you'd go for a friend."

"I'd die for both_ you_ _and_ Naruto." Kiba said fiercely, brows descending in a knot of concentration over his eyes.

"What about Hinata?"

Kiba went bright red at this and muttered that he didn't think it was a very appropriate question to be asked especially when Hinata was getting married in six months time.

"It's an arranged marriage," Shikamaru reminded him once again, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the wall, "and you're a fool from not sweeping her off her feet and making passionate love to her."

Kiba gave Shikamaru a look as if he'd been slapped across the face; his friend tilted his head and narrowed his angular eyes at him.

"Unless you already have of course." He said with mild amusement in his voice at the way Kiba jumped.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Kiba Inuzuka managed to splutter finally untying his voice box in order to speak, "I might have been confused when I woke up in the hospital after you gave me those drugs but-"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him, "How's your head by the way?"

"Awful, it feels like it's been hacked in two by a blunt meat cleaver."

"Well that's your fault for taking so much."

"You hid it in cake!" Kiba yelled at him indignantly, "How was I supposed to know how much drugs you put in the goddamned thing? I was enjoying the creamy icing and the buttery goodness!"

"And when you started grinning inanely and began hallucinating it didn't strike you that perhaps you'd taken an overdose?" Shikamaru asked with mock teasing politeness, "You were supposed to eat one slice Kiba, _one slice_. In that way the effects would be harder to trace and slow acting. I meant for you to be confused not-not…" he passed a weary hand over his face, "Not to pass out, albeit it was dramatic and amusing, with all the 'pretty lights' and all that. No one suspects you took it on purpose, in fact general gossip is that Naruto slipped you Morphine, although God knows how he would have managed that when he's mortally afraid of needles. I suppose you could have tripped up and landed on one, you're certainly clumsy enough."

"Shut up!" Snapped Kiba, colouring a dark shade of crimson, "I was still confused when I woke up this morning and found both Shino and Hinata sitting in my ward with me, because for the life of me I could work out how the hell I got there." He gave Shikamaru another accusatory look to which Shikamaru answered by saying with more then a little exasperation "I, of course, having dropped in earlier to make sure you were still alive. Then had to go again and make arrangements for this rescue team."

Kiba snorted.

"My head was still somewhere not attached to my body and Hinata might have been holding my hand, but Shino went out the room to speak to his father and I might have said something stupid to her…" his voice got smaller and smaller and softer and softer.

"You told her you loved her didn't you?" Shikamaru said, almost triumphantly trying very hard to keep the grin off his face and _not_ succeeding very well.

"I don't know what I said, but then she leaned across the bed and…and…kissed me…" And Kiba looked at his feet as if he'd done something very, very sinfully wrong, liking murdering infants or talking at the theatre.

Shikamaru actually made a whooping noise followed by a triumphant punching gesture in the air.

"Then I passed out," Kiba very quickly added, "so don't crow over it, it means _nothing_. She probably was feeling sorry for me, or she was sick or something, and it was a pity kiss or I could have hallucinated the whole thing. God knows I was high enough to do that. She still has to marry Neji, Shikamaru you know that, and have _intelligent_ children with him and have a happy and secure life, not me Maru so for god sakes **STOP GRINNING AT ME LIKE THAT**."

"I'm not grinning," Shikamaru, said smugly, "this is just what my face looks like, I can't help it if my face looks like it's grinning."

"This is all one big mess," Kiba said pathetically into his hands and slumping across the kitchen table, "what am I going to say when I see her next time? What am I going to do…It won't matter, you and I are going on this rescue mission and she'll forget all about it."

"I wouldn't count on it." Shikamaru said pleasantly putting two sandwiches on a plate for Kiba to eat and going to the sink to fill a glass of water, "Hinata's going too."

"_What?_"

"But I'd keep your libido in check if I were you," was Shikamaru's simply and somewhat amicable reply as if the bastard was enjoying this.

"Because Neji's coming as well, now don't look at me like that."

Which was bold of Shikamaru to say especially when Kiba was looking as if he might leap across the table and throttle Shikamaru into a near death state.

"I have the feeling that this mission is going to need more then trackers, we need people with physical power in order to defend ourselves and Neji is both another set of good eyes and he'd be one person on my list I'd rather not piss off. So I'm warning you Kiba, don't get carried away with love proposals."

"I WON'T BE PROPOSING ANYTHING YOU DIC-"

"So I've asked Choji to come as well, because you and him pack the largest amount of raw power, then there's Lee, Taijutsu I know, but we don't know if these creatures feed of the chakra lost when casting Jutsu so it's a precautionary measure. Then there's Ino, because we need a medical nin-"

"How on earth did you convince Ino to come?" Kiba asked suspiciously, looking at Shikamaru as he suspected him to rip off his clothes at any second to reveal a brightly coloured superman outfit underneath.

"I got Choji to ask her." Shikamaru replied briskly walking once again into the kitchen. "The real mission behind all of this is to rescue Sakura's team but I can't get it authorised directly from the council, it's kind of a loop hole."

The auburn haired youth raised both of his eyebrows at this, putting the sandwich to his mouth and taking an enormous bite out of it and licking his lips.

"Meaning Tsunade agrees with you but the council won't let her do it right?"

"Exactly," Shikamaru said nodding, "the orders are to find Sasuke and Naruto as soon as possible, but if we find them in the Land of the Waterfall we are also authorised to look for Sakura as well, and I'm betting we can get to the bottom of some answers there. It's just too suspicious not to yield answers."

"You are unbelievable." Kiba said slowly, holding the sandwich in mid air and letting some of the filling drop out and slide across the plate, "You organised a heist, you're organising a rescue mission in which you will be delaying everyone in order to get what you want. What if someone finds out it was you that switched the shifts for the ANBU guard outside the room where they were keeping Sasuke in? And that it was you that told Naruto all the inside information…they'd…they'd I don't know. They'd hang you."

"Doubtful," Shikamaru said shrugging his shoulders, "I fudged up the evidence about the shift change and there's nothing leading back to me or you, and besides even if there was we both have alibis. So unless you are going to dance around Konoha pointing your finger at me, I highly doubt anyone is going to know."

"We-you…you could be exiled for this."

"Something's are worth taking that risk for." Shikamaru said with a snapping note of resolution in his voice, Kiba was so awed by this he didn't know what to say and sat there for a moment opening and closing his mouth as if imitating a fish.

Shikamaru's face softened somewhat and picked up a sandwich from the plate and took a small bite of it himself.

"I need to put some more things together before I go to sleep, but we're leaving a 5 o'clock tomorrow morning. You can sleep at the end of my bed if you like seeing as how you've still got some of the drugs running through your system. I'm warning you though, the second you put your feet on my face I'm going to kick you out of bed."

Shikamaru didn't get a chance say much after that, because Kiba sprang up from his side of the table and launched himself at him in a bone crunching hug, they both fell to the floor completely winded. And even though Shikamaru was not a 'hugging person' he tolerated if for over a minute and a half, recognising that it was an 'I love you' hug, and a 'I'm scared' hug and a 'I trust you' hug and 'I'll follow you anywhere' hug.

Sometimes Shikamaru wondered if Kiba would follow him willingly into death, he spent most of that making silent pacts with faceless deities, partly because his insides were being eaten up by guilt and worry and partly because Kiba snored too loud for him even to consider sleeping.

* * *

"That was the _dumbest_ thing you've ever done Naruto, and you've done a lot of _dumb_ things in your _dumb_ life!" 

"Me?" Naruto hissed right back at Sasuke, doing his best to keep his voice down, his hair was dark brown and trailing down the small of his back, he blinked his blue fathomless eyes and tossed his head angrily, hands on hips.

"This was all your stupid idea in the first place, hell you didn't even tell me what we were doing! Just made up your mind all on the spot and dragged me here, made me-made me change into a _girl _and then pretended we were a goddamned couple and…and…"

"And it worked out fine." Sasuke snapped back at him, silvered grey eyes seemingly boring holes into the back of Naruto's head, "Apart from you signing your name backwards, nice alias by the way _Ikamuzu_, no one is going to think that was you."

Naruto flushed, breaking the henge and turning round to the back of the room so he could pick up his rucksack.

"I can't help it if I forgot that ridiculous name you said I was supposed to use, what was it Yuzu?"

"_Yuzuki_, I said call yourself _Yuzuki_ Nikure! But as usual you had to go and mess that up, thank god I convinced that woman we were secretly eloping otherwise I'm sure they would have chucked you straight in a mental asylum for not remembering what your name was."

"I was under **pressure**, besides _Yuzuki_ is a ridiculous name, it sounds like fruit not a persons name. I mean I might as well been called Apple or Lemon. And then they would have both thrown us in the loony bin, me for thinking I'm a fruit and you for marrying one."

Sasuke gave him a very dry look at this, crossing his arms and becoming more stubborn and petulant looking (if it were possible) then ever before.

"It was my mother's favourite name." he said quietly and opened the door to the small on suite bathroom to Naruto's right and closed the door with a brisk snap behind him.

Naruto sighed, his shoulders relaxing and then drooping. They had been on the run for three days straight so far. Three days without proper rest or food, both covered in mud, tired, exhausted and hungry Sasuke had eventually drawn the line saying stubbornly that if Naruto pushed him anymore in 'their' current 'condition' he'd simply lie on his back until the perusing Ninja caught up with them and to hell with the consequences.

The Kitsune had yelled at this, stamped his foot and tried to persuade Sasuke (violently) to keep going. Sasuke had stubbornly and logically refused, pointing out the obvious reasons as to why they couldn't just press on. Naruto didn't have enough supplies to keep going at this pace, they didn't have a map, they didn't have up-to-date information, they didn't know _who_ was perusing them or how far behind they were and also there was a slight concern to the 'condition' they were in.

By 'condition' of course Sasuke meant the binding Jutsu, or 'the Leash' to which he was now calling it.

"Naruto," Sasuke had said in the middle of day two when he and the blond had been walking behind a waterfall in order not to leave any tracks, "the Leash's getting shorter."

So it was, the more tired and exhausted Naruto became, the angrier, the more stressed, the sadder and the hungrier made the distance between them get shorter and shorter. By the end of the third day Sasuke was having to walk directly behind Naruto doing the best he could to avoid touching him with any part of his body. It didn't matter what Naruto thought or meant, or even apologised to Sasuke, Sasuke on the inside was seething with both intense jealously, envy and a generous side helping of deep self-disgust. On the one hand if Naruto hadn't --wasn't-- trying to rip the universe apart to find Sakura again that would make him a monster, but at the same time some small part of his brain, some small voice seemed to say: "He chose her over you. He chose _her_."

Of course Naruto was going to choose Sakura over him, wouldn't he have in Naruto's position? He'd made the blond's life a living hell ever since he'd met him again and all this-this mess was his fault anyway, he didn't deserve to be shown any affection from Naruto, friendship or love. Not that he thought it was love anyway, it was too twisted, too half head, too utterly soul consuming for it to be love. But it didn't stop Sasuke from wanting to rip Naruto's eyes out of his skull for merely looking towards someone else.

_// He was going to marry her…//_

You can't walk out of someone's life for six years and expect to be let back in again, you can't tell them what to think, what to feel, what to say, what to except. You can't want to hold them or touch them or tell them that you need them and that they're the only thing in the universe you suspect is holding you together.

Sasuke bit his lip and let himself slide down the bathroom door, he needed to be practical, he needed to think clearly, he needed to find a way out of this that wouldn't get them both killed.

_// Hang Sakura. //_

No, that wasn't fair, that was the jealousy and the competition, she had been a childhood friend and she had loved him for all that was perfect and visible and she loved Naruto for all that was invisible and imperfect. Naruto himself had asked the question: "Don't I deserve to be loved?"

He certainly didn't deserve to, everything he had succeeded in he had got there by lies and manipulation, including this backed up and twisted relationship he had gotten himself into with Naruto…Naruto.

He had looked so beautiful, rain spattering thick and heavy on his face, eyes screwed up panting, calling his name _"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke…"_

_// You said once.//_

_// I still want him.//_

_// You said __**once**_

_// That was before, I was leaving, it's different now, it's different.//_

_// How so?//_

_// It's hard, I'm with him and I want him, I want him to look at me. Just me, forever.//_

_// How is that fair on him?//_

_// It's not fair…there's no excuse. But I can't help but feel that way. //_

"Am I in love with him?" he asked quietly, to no one in particular, his voice too quite for even himself to hear. On the other side of the door he could hear Naruto shuffling about, pulling kunai and bandages out of the pack as well as emergency rations. They had a compass, rope, energy pills, soldier pills, pills for blood loss, painkillers, sedative and a type of disinfectant that made his eyes water and skin burn.

"This is all Shikamaru's doing." Naruto had said proudly when he had taken Sasuke to a secret hollow to show him the hidden rucksacks, "Planned this all in advance."

The Uchiha had looked bitterly at the backpacks and thought privately that it was the beginning of their undoing.

_// People must make things difficult by interfering.//_

"Sasuke," Naruto said evenly, he was standing in front of the door, his hair was messy and his eyes were tired, almost dull.

"Sasuke I'm going to go downstairs and get us both something to eat, you're not being sick in there are you?"

"No!" was the snappish reply through the wooden door frame, was he sitting beside the door or was Naruto just imagining him to be sitting so close—close enough to touch…

"Remember to go down as a _girl_."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Naruto muttered sheepish, he already had one hand on the door handle; "I'll leave the key in here…so, umm, I'll knock or something when I come back."

There was a negligible sound that came through the door which Naruto guessed to be a grunt of agreement, whatever it was, it was enough allowance to let himself out of the room and almost run down the hallway of that shady little inn.

How had he got himself mixed up in this? He looked like a pretty young woman, dressed in plain travelling clothes with dark curling brown hair and large innocent looking blue eyes.

He didn't walk like a young woman though-or at least no young woman he'd ever met, he sort of strode like a man and spent most of the time with his shoulders hunched forwards and a sort of absent expression on his face. He must look like an idiot, why Sasuke had insisted he turn into a girl and not his usually Sexy no Jutsu transformation either.

"No," he had said cuttingly, "that's far too obvious. You want to throw them off the scent, not lead them right to us you fool!"

Sasuke had been in a bad mood ever since they'd started this ill-fated journey, or 'quest' as Naruto kept referring to it as in his mind. It was a good plan, it would work, they'd cross the river, traverse the ravine until they found the bridge and cross the mountain range into the back border of the Land of the Waterfall and somehow rescue Sakura. It was a _good plan_; there was no other plan. It **had** to work.

The snag or proverbial Gordian knot in the works was that the plan relied heavily on Sasuke helping him do this, Sasuke who knew what these things were, Sasuke who wasn't telling him anything, Sasuke who was being as stubborn as hell and being purposefully unhelpful as possible. It didn't help by the fact that the binding technique that Shikamaru had taught him seemed to be fast becoming more of a hindrance then any help. The more exhausted and tired Naruto became the shorter the 'Leash' became, and after three days of extensive travel, keeping under cover and hidden at all times, and only taking short half an hour meal breaks and giving neither of them a good opportunity to sleep. Had in short produced a very ratty, very irritable, very _unpleasant_ Sasuke to be around. And Naruto _had_ to be around Sasuke, because he was quite sure without this binding Jutsu, forbidden though it maybe, Sasuke would have run off and left him. Left him for the horizon of uncertainty and whatever it was that was lurking in the shadows.

Naruto didn't even want to think about it.

He kept closing his eyes and seeing flickering dark creatures beneath his eyelids, dark staring eyes and unhinging jaws, dark evil faces watching him from the branches of trees and the whisper of death on silent wings flying towards him when his back was turned.

He _was_ terrified, but he wasn't letting Sasuke know. Oh no, not Sasuke, for all his bad moods, sultry tongue and black temper like molten slag bubbling away in a cast iron pot. He was being wholly impossible right down to the last fibre in his stubborn unswayable being, and when Sasuke stood up and made an effort at being thoroughly unpleasant it was a good idea to be as far away from him as was humanly possible. Another planet, as far as Naruto was concerned would have been preferable.

Let Sasuke sulk in the bathtub, Naruto thought bitterly taking the stairs two at a time and walking in the inns small dining area.

_// He can sit in there all night for all I care, as long as he doesn't drown. // _

He needed Sasuke to read the map; Naruto had always been awful at map reading.

As he sat down at a small two-seat table and ordered food from the pretty young girl who was of the owner of the inn, she asked Naruto where 'her' alleged 'husband' was.

Naruto had stared at her blankly for a moment before realising who she was talking about, "Oh, him!" Naruto had burst out with, looking surprised and the waitress had laughed. He was quite unable to stop himself from grinning insanely at the idea of Sasuke being married to anyone because he was such a sullen and uncaring human being.

"He's so handsome," she had chirped, colouring prettily. She had golden ringlets falling over her shoulders and warm hazel eyes, Kiba would have liked her was Naruto's immediate thought.

"I've never seen anyone with such pale skin and such dark smouldering eyes, you two must be terribly in love. He was standing so close to you all the time, you really are lucky."

_// Smouldering eyes?_

_Sasuke?_

_What on earth?//_

Eyes that could peel paint, yes.

Eyes at could probably given half a chance kill you, absolutely.

Sasuke Uchiha certainly had intense brooding eyes, it was a Uchiha trademark as far as Naruto knew, he remembered (distantly it's true) looking into Itachi's eyes and feeling the same over whelming surge drawing him in.

But they certainly weren't smouldering in the wildly romantic way of paperback romance novels in which the heroes with rippling muscles sweep damsels in distress off their feet.

It wasn't that Sasuke didn't have enough substance; it was just that Sasuke didn't have a romantic bone in his body.

He was cruel, he was ambitious, he was determined, oh he could be passionate Naruto knew that right through his body and against his lips and mouth but _smouldering_…?!

The waitress did not quite understand why Naruto dissolved into such giggling hysterics, she began to laugh too, and Naruto quite unintentionally held the attention of all the male customers in the bar.

"Well he might look impressive," Naruto finished resting his chin on his hands and trying to settle the laughter in his stomach, "but after one round beneath the bedcovers he's out like a light, you know? Talks big, but is-" he gave a suggestive grin (did girls talk about this sort of thing? To hell if they didn't _it was fun_) "let's just say average sized in that department."

The girl laughed again, and Naruto caught himself thinking again how she pretty she was.

"So you two have eloped, is that right? How romantic…"

"I suppose you could say that," Naruto replied musingly, wondering if it was all that romantic.

Eloping, defying one's family and friends to be with someone like Sasuke? That wasn't really a romantic thought, it brought vivid images to mind of Shikamaru yelling at him to stop being such a fool, of Kiba's worry, Hinata's warm strength and of Ino's suspicion.

But then again he really didn't have any idea of what romance was, in the classical feminine way, which he supposed, was the only way.

Whenever Sakura had talked about things like weddings he'd always switched off, allowing his mind to travel to places like 'Ramen Land' or other more 'Adult Themed' realities which he'd never admit to but jacked off to when he thought he was quite alone.

"My uncle did not approve at all." He found himself saying thinking about Jiraiya's reaction to Sasuke.

"Although we were living together before we left, my Aunt's idea…and it worked for a time…" his voice trailed off and he smiled vaguely at her, thinking about something else entirely.

Why had it stopped working? Because they'd kissed? Because they'd argued? Because things had become too out of hand?

"Still," Naruto finished brightly, "it's my first marriage, but also probably my last at this rate anyway."

"Why is that?" the waitress asked curiously, tossing her bright blonde hair, ringlets jumping like beads of gold.

"Because he's ruined all other men for me, but him." Naruto admitted, feeling somewhat embarrassed because it was true. His stomach gave a particularly loud rumble at this and he covered his flush with a feminine laugh.

"Would it be entirely too much to ask if I could have some of that stew that everyone else is eating? I could eat cow I'm so hungry."

The trouble really started when he started eating.

The waitress, who kept finding small periods of time to come over to Naruto's table and talk to him for a spare five minutes before she was called away again brought over on one occasion a glass of wine.

"I didn't order that." Naruto said suspiciously running one hand through his long curly brown hair, (it was really rather disconcerting having long hair, it was so heavy!) "I didn't order it did I?"

"The man at the bar there ordered it, Ikamuzu-san, he says it's for you."

"Oh did he?" Naruto replied happy for free food whenever it was offered to him, he turned round and gave the man at the bar a cheerful wave and a grin.

"That's awfully nice of him."

And so the evening progressed.

By the end of it Naruto had a small group of good looking young men gathered around his table hanging onto every word he said. Naruto couldn't work out if it was simply because he was tired, or perhaps everyone in this particular town was especially boring. It was nice because everyone was paying attention to him, and to a certain extend it was like holding a conversation with Shikamaru, Kiba, Choji and Lee those times when they'd head out to the bar together only to get themselves into a ridiculous scrape later on that same evening. The next morning they'd wake up together, clothed or semi-naked on a good day and wholly naked on a bad day, look at each other and say: "Let's never do that again."

Of course they always did.

The trouble was people would insist on buying him drinks, his head was muzzy from it all and he felt comfortably warm if not a little sleepy. He kept laughing, blue eyes half closed, feeling for the first time in a long time relaxed as he had been before Sasuke had driven a train crash into his life.

"You tired darling?" Someone asked him putting a warm broad hand on the small of his back.

That felt nice, that felt really nice.

"Mmm, a little." Naruto laughed realising he'd been falling asleep at the table, "I should really go back to my room now. Sa- I mean my husband, he gets ratty if I'm away too long." and he began to stand up but forgot his body was slimmer and daintier then it was when he was a guy, that and the alcohol went straight to his head making the world spin unpleasantly. He tottered for a moment, then fell against someone's chest and felt someone's arm about his waist.

"Keeping you all to himself like that, selfish bastard. How come we haven't seen you before huh? You're gorgeous you are, would have liked to marry you myself."

Naruto blinked, groggy though he was that didn't sound like something the guys would say to him on a Friday night.

"You _what_?"

"Perhaps not marry you, but I'd have liked to have got to know you better. I'd still like to get to know you better…very much so in fact."

A handsome young man was talking to Naruto perhaps in his late twenties, he had dark curly hair and eyes the colour of Lavender. Naruto recognised him as the one who had bought him the drink in the first place, and that they were walking somewhere…somewhere that was definitely _not_ to his and Sasuke's room anyway.

Oh god, he was a fool.

"Uh," began Naruto feeling the upsurges of panic prickle down his spine, "I don't think that's a very good idea…"

"…Since the moment you walked in the door," the man was saying, "with that smile and those eyes. I've never seen such beautiful eyes in all my life, like blue glass marbles, like the sky, like the ocean, like a thousand of droplets of rain."

_// Oh no, this man fancied himself a poet…//_

"I want to _know_ you better Ikamuzu-san."

If nothing before had set alarm bells off inside Naruto's head then that did, lots of alarm bells, he looked around wildly to find that they were in some secluded place _outside_ the inn and that the warm night air was misting in front of his mouth. The handsome young man was giving Naruto such and intense look, perhaps it was even a _smouldering_ look Naruto thought almost hysterically.

"Look you," he began firmly placing both his hands against this man's chest, "there will be no _knowing_ here."

But his words were cut off as the young man backed him up against a wall placed two hands either side of his head and leant in to kiss him.

Naruto's first reaction was that of surprise, being a guy and usually straight to the point of fact that was not usually hit on by men, he had no prior experience of being forced into kisses, or any such other compromising situations. It was a horrible experience of someone trying to force their tongue into his partially open mouth.

Naruto gave a small whimper of panic and disgust which the young man took as a whimper of desire and using one hand to pin both of Naruto's hands over his head used his other hand to…his other hand to… oh God **NO!**

Naruto was nano-seconds away from breaking the henge and beating this guy to within and inch of his miserable life when the kiss (if you could call it a kiss, more like eating face) was broken and the man went staggering backwards.

"Don't you _ever_," snarled Sasuke withdrawing one fist and punching the man square in the face "touch _anything of mine ever again!_" there was a crunching of bone and a thick spurt of blood as the man fell backwards onto the cobblestones and moved no more.

"Is he dead?" Naruto asked, breathing heavily, adrenaline jumping round his system like a jackhammer.

"No," was the short cold reply he received as Sasuke nudged the man's unconscious form with one shoe, a look of snarling contempt on his face.

"Well you should have killed him!" was Naruto's passionate response, "Ugly great smarmy bastard, that was **disgusting**."

"Really?" there was that sardonic tone of voice again and those cold, cold eyes.

"You seemed to be enjoying it."

Naruto gaped at Sasuke, there was no other word for it. He stood there with his mouth open so the pink tip of his tongue could be seen splayed straight touching the white of his teeth.

"I-I….**what**?"

"You _heard_ me." Sasuke replied in the same arctic tones, arms crossed and body so perpendicular you could have used him as a ruler. His body language was dangerous, his voice was dangerous, god damn his eyes were dangerous, and to top that all off he was being irrational.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, not quite understanding but coming closer anyway.

He looked like a young woman Sasuke thought, a beautiful young woman with long brown curling hair, but at the same time he looked like Naruto, Naruto because of the way he talked, because of his mannerisms, because of that stride and most of all because of those eyes. Innocent blue eyes…the colour of Sasuke wasn't really sure what, he could probably spend his whole life searching and never find something that exquisite, or pure.

"Sasuke," Naruto said firmly, "you're insane."

Sasuke Uchiha didn't want to repeat how horribly jealous he'd been, he didn't want to reiterate how he'd wanted to yank that young man's throat out of his mouth and watch him choke on the blood. He didn't want to tell Naruto that he was so close to being obsessively in love with him…_was_ obsessively in love with him. That it frightened him.

Instead he grabbed Naruto by the wrist and yanked him closer, Naruto stumbled because he was drunk and fell against Sasuke and closed his eyes breathing in the smell. Thinking it was like coming home, Christmas, childhood and years gone by all wrapped up in a sea of memories.

"You're insane." He muttered again, "Absolutely insane."

Sasuke shut him up by kissing him.

It was a fierce kiss, all about tongues and teeth clacking together and Sasuke passionately demanding (that's what Sasuke was through and through, he never did anything by half measures) that Naruto was filled by him, that there was no part of Naruto he hadn't tasted, hadn't touched.

His fingers traced delicate lines on Naruto's cheeks where his scars were to be found underneath the transformation Jutsu, he cupped Naruto's jaw, tilting his head so the kissed deepened. Underneath him Naruto gave a small murmur, then a whimper of desire.

Sasuke broke away then, loving the fact that Naruto's eyes were half closed and hazy with lust, looking up at him lips flushed and swollen. He leaned down to take his bottom lip teasingly between his teeth.

"Back to the room," he said throatily, between nips and kisses, "_**now**_."

"I can't walk." Was Naruto's sluggish reply, fingers digging into Sasuke's shoulders. Drunk on Sasuke's kisses, smell and touch, there was a familiar pang of need deep inside his abdomen and as Sasuke ground his hips against Naruto's slowly, teasing and playing, Naruto threw back his head and moaned.

That was it for Sasuke, he picked Naruto up and threw him over his shoulder. He was thrown from there some short time later onto the bed, and lay there breaking the henge, a young blond man in simple travellers clothing. He forgot completely about being a ninja, lost for an endless moment in Sasuke.

Sasuke who covered his face in kisses, Sasuke who crawled up his body and whispered urgent secrets in his ear, Sasuke who made the sky and the horizon falter with his touch and his beautiful slim body.

_"Naruto you're mine, you're mine, you're mine."_

Naruto laughed, and he smiled, and his kissed, and he arched and he moaned, finger entwining in Sasuke's beautiful dark hair, dark like silky jet, dark and mysterious and beautiful just like Sasuke.

"I had dreams about you kissing me," Naruto murmured, very naked with Sasuke's hot mouth pressed against his naval, tongue dipping in and swirling.

The Uchiha growled against his pectoral muscles sending shivers of anticipation throughout Naruto's body.

"I had dreams about you fucking me too…" Naruto said in almost a wondering voice bent over on his hands and knees Sasuke behind him, in him, pressed hot and sweaty against his back. Naruto was pressing back into him, small growls and moans within his own throat, Sasuke bit his shoulder hard, hoping to leave some trace he could brush his finger over later before it disappeared forever. Just like how all the marks he left on Naruto disappeared.

There were things that Sasuke said that he hoped Naruto wouldn't remember later, delicate things like _"Only you."_ And _"My whole life"_ and even _"So much it hurts."_

They lay next to each other afterwards, naked entwined, Sasuke confused and at ease at the same time, and clutching onto Naruto hard whilst he slept head buried in the crook of Sasuke's shoulder, slow deep breathing, love marks on his neck, chest and shoulders.

"Naruto," Sasuke said slowly to the darkness, knowing that within a few hours they have to be gone, "Naruto do you think you can forgive me for what I've done wrong?"

The silence was the only answer to his question, but Sasuke was sure as he lay listening to his and Naruto's heart beats mingle that the answer would be no.

* * *

A/N 

First of all I demand that everyone look at this: ryuusei-illusion(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Fish-Bird-Chp10-60203110

(just replace the (dot) bits with you know what I mean)

You must worship this artist because she is a sasunaru lover and her sketches are down right SEXY

That and it's just.. wow...wow

Okay, chapter scratch that and put a bow on it, that _this there here_ is one of my favourite chapters. Just because I was giggling _insanely_ all the way through it .

Okay, now seriously guys, back to business. You are all **_CLOSET READERS_**, I can see the stats on this thing and I happen to know each chapter gets over a thousand views, so if I were to sit here and do the math I can say a heck of a lot of you read this all the way through but don't tell me what you think. I love writing Fish Bird, I really do, but I'm writing fanfiction to improve my own writing style and venting my SasuNaru need in the process. Feed back makes me write faster, because I the feed back gives me new ideas and new perspectives on what I'm writing and also on what you guys enjoy best about by style. I'm not a review whore really (reviews are very very sexy though !!!) but I really do want to know what you think, _I WANT TO KNOW. TELL ME DAMNIT!!_

_Much love as always, hoping to hear from you guys-_

_(T) ED_


	13. Over my head

**Fish Bird**

By The Eternity Dragon

**Disclaimer**: Kishimoto, I don't own the copyright to Naruto, and sometimes I wonder to God if you do either. But I'll

tell you something, IF YOU DON'T PUT NARUTO BACK INTO NARUTO SOON I WILL FLY TO JAPAN MYSELF AND WALK ALL OVER YOUR ASS! Yours lovingly, TED

**Over my head**

A/N: there's going to be a big Authors note at the end of this chapter, because I want to say thank you to everyone who review last time. That and I have a special announcement to make.

I'm also thinking about changing my penname to AcaciaBrown, I've had TED for... um... 5 years maybe? I'd like to change it, what do you think?

* * *

"Sasuke," said Naruto gently, "get up." 

Sasuke Uchiha had his mouth slightly open as he slept, back against the rough ground, clothes wrinkled and worn by dirt and sweat against his skin. Naruto smiled as the raven-haired youth wrinkled his brow in his sleep and gave an obligatory moan.

He'd never seen Sasuke sleep like this before, all splayed out in a jumble of awkward limbs and angles, forehead creased in a tiny frown.

Sasuke wasn't tired, he was exhausted and for good reason too. After stopping in the town four days prior after acquiring a map, supplies and several more enquires into Naruto and Sasuke's 'apparent marriage' they had left with the advice of one of the village elder's not to take the main roads up to the land of the waterfall. Sasuke had spent the better half of a day trying to 'discreetly' glean the information out of the woman before Naruto or _Ikamuzu-san_ as everyone had taken to calling him had blurted out that actually they were both on a secret mission against her father's rule to rescue Naruto's long lost sister out of the perilous clutches of a wicked Uncle.

Sasuke's mouth had actually hung open at the outrageous and somewhat ridiculous lie that Naruto elaborated on the spot, accompanied by many hand gestures, sparkling blue eyes, and in the end a flow of tears before Naruto threw himself on the ground before the Elder and begged and sobbed for the information on how to navigate the perilous mountain passes that lay on their trail before them.

Needless to say, the village Elder was probably as taken back as Sasuke was, but also had a great deal of sympathy on the matter at hand as well, and whilst stroking Naruto's long curly brown hair had told a man servant to fetch her family's valued maps.

Afterwards Sasuke had said bitingly, "Please don't make a habit of throwing yourself at other people, it's unbecoming of a young woman."

To which Naruto had responded, laughing and teasing a little, "You're only sour Sasuke because I wasn't throwing myself at you."

To this Sasuke had no retort to, because it was true.

They'd made their way up from the low lying country all around them onto hard rocky terrain, and had been avoiding all well trodden and main paths for fear of meeting other people, or even worse, other nin. The roads they were taking were in fact not roads at all, but natural pathways in between the rocks, grasses and trees. Little corridors between the rocks that sloped precariously upwards, often leaning over great heights as the forest wound round and round and the rocks soared up and up.

But despite avoiding people all together Naruto and Sasuke had discovered that the by roads or 'wilderness', had one great disadvantage over the main roads that everyone else used. As huge man-made pathways were not hewn into the rocks, travelling across precarious winding trails that spent more time going backwards then forwards. And more often then not, getting hopelessly lost as if the trail was having an argument with itself on which way to go, meant their progress was severely slower then if they'd been going by a main road. At this fact Naruto had argued profusely.

"So what if we travel by the main roads!" he had snarled at Sasuke as they had left the village, shouldering his backpack on his broad shoulders, "If we come across someone I can do the transformation Jutsu again and we can pretend that-"

"We are a romantic couple taking a honeymoon to Death's Ravine? I _don't_ think so _Ikamuzu-san_. And besides, what if some comes across **me**?

"I'm just about able to use Chakra in one arm, but a lot of good that would do if we came across someone who knows what I look like. I can't disguise my face by disguising my arm can I?"

Naruto had grumbled at that, casting Sasuke dark looks until Sasuke incensed had snapped back with: "Look you, you **made me** come, you moron!" And before he could continue on a tirade of how Naruto had: 'made him do this' and 'made him do that' the blond had said softly with quiet contemplation, "But I want you here with me."

And then neither of them had been able to say anything for a while because Sasuke had turned around and kissed Naruto, once, twice, three times for every jealous thought that had been swimming round in his head for the last twenty four hours, and for every look of wanting he'd seen other men shooting in Naruto's direction.

Naruto had to admit Sasuke had been less prickly, as of late, he'd argued less, and whilst still being as stubborn as a mule made his point with less shouting and rude words and more with strong tones and firm opinions. He'd also taken to walking very close to Naruto as they moved, close enough so that their hands would brush on occasion or their shoulders bump together.

Naruto didn't complain about it, in fact he felt more at ease with Sasuke so close to him, a warm body beside him radiating heat assuring him of Sasuke's very vibrant existence right next to him and…not fighting the direction in which they were both going.

Their conversations too were less bristling with accusations, although sometimes they said very little at all, but sometimes like when Naruto would stop to point out a clump of pretty wild flowers hanging precariously off the rocky mountain wall they were scaling Sasuke would say something like, "I didn't know you liked flowers." An inclination of a smile in his voice and on his lips, to which Naruto would retort back slightly defensive "I can admire pretty things can't I? Or is that so feminine it makes me a girl?"

Sasuke still hadn't opened up to Naruto, it was true, he didn't talk about what had happened to him all those years ago, what was still happening to him, all the mystery, all the lies, they were still hidden, still secret. But now if Naruto looked at him unexpectedly he might look slowly away, or blink and give a soft smile instead of his accusatory glare that the Kitsune was so used to.

The first time this happened Naruto had nearly rolled back down the side of the steep hill they'd just been climbing, so taken back was he that Sasuke's face hadn't shattered at the merest hint of his facial muscles stretching to form something of a friendly expression.

But when Sasuke demanded Naruto tell him about what was so hysterically funny the blond wouldn't tell him. Just smile that easy, generous, beautiful smile and shake his head.

There were a lot of things about Sasuke that Naruto had never realised, or never thought to realise. Sasuke was vocal in the exact same way that Shikamaru was vocal; he spoke when he wanted to project an opinion or thought but didn't blurt things out like Naruto or Kiba did when any stray butterfly of a thought crossed his mind. When he was irritated he hunched his shoulders and made his back unnaturally straight, he also had a way of inclining his head when he wanted to say something important but didn't know what it was. He also had a way of inclining his head when he wanted Naruto to kiss him too.

Sex with Sasuke Uchiha was…was…. Painful, unexpected, rough and wonderful all at the same time. Although Naruto hadn't really given much thought to reflect on it, what he hated and loved about Sasuke all seemed to merge into the same colourful ball of whirling colours, that seemed to fly and spin in every direction like a whirlwind.

Sasuke was physical with Naruto, he'd always had been, and now as they were spending so much time shrouded in each others company every passing moment seemed an opportunity to push, shove or play.

Yesterday afternoon in which they'd taken a brief hour's respite after walking solidly up steep cliffs for five solid hours, until they'd come over the side into thicket of trees and a place where the mountain river wound its way through the rocks and down the side of the cliff. Where it joined the huge lake nestled like a priceless blue gem between the rise of the land.

Naruto had pushed Sasuke into the water, clothes and all, and Sasuke had turned round and dunked Naruto's head in the stream for a full minute and ten seconds until he'd thrown Naruto back onto the bank and proceeded to try and dry his now sodden clothes. Naruto had lain on the mossy bank, passing in and out of consciousness and counting the pink spots that swam across his vision, after a while he collected enough of himself to spring up behind Sasuke and rip his top up and over his head, springing backwards with it held in his hands as a bull fighter would tempt a bull. Sasuke's predictable but inevitable reaction was to catch Naruto with a full body tackle that sent them both flying to the ground.

They had spent the next half an hour scratching, hitting, biting, licking, tasting, kissing and grinding against each other until Naruto, hot and sweaty against the earth, the smell of fresh grass and semen in his nostrils, realised they had both cum and pushed Sasuke off him who was nuzzling the base of his jaw with his nose, so they could both wash.

At night they stopped at a suitable shelter just before it became too dark to see anything. Sasuke was better at this then Naruto was, he had a knack for picking places that were not just out of the way but almost invisible too unless one stopped and really stared and realised that the outcrop of rock one was looking at could actually have an entrance if one slipped under those rocks. But brainpower had never been one of Naruto's strong points, brutal honesty had been, and this morning was no exception.

As Naruto watched Sasuke sleep he was full of thoughts of telling Sasuke how much he hated him, how much he felt for him, how deliriously angry, or sad, or happy Sasuke was able to make Naruto just by saying a word or by giving a small shrug of his shoulders.

Naruto toyed with the idea of taking his water flask out of his backpack and pouring it all over Sasuke's face, but decided against it. It would after all be a waste of water, and he didn't really want Sasuke Uchiha bearing down at him dripping and in a very, _very_ foul mood first thing in the morning. So Naruto let him be for a moment, edging his way out between the two overhanging rocks that created a sort of tunnel over the small cave they'd found together last night, hidden on all sides by bushes and tress.

Naruto stood in the morning sunlight and stretched, fingers curling and reaching for the blue sky, feet digging into the earth as he uncurled his spine. It was a misty brisk morning, the type of morning where the sun flows through a grey sheen of clouds onto the land below it, ticking it gently with it's warm light.

Naruto stood in the sunshine laughing and shaking his head, trying to unbend all the cracks in his spine and shake out the last of the sleep from his legs. His stomach growled as it always did when he woke up, demanding Ramen, cereal, some food substance of some sort. Naruto winced, thinking about the dried jerky he was supposed to eat for breakfast. That dried meat food stuff made his teeth ache and he wrinkled his nose at the thought, peering at the undergrowth around them for berries or other types of fruit that in the late autumn might still be available to eat.

There seemed to be a promising bush three meters off, with a quick backwards glance behind him at the shelter and where Sasuke was presumably still sleeping Naruto set off in the direction of breakfast, humming softly under his breath.

It was only when he got to the bush and stretched his hand out towards the top most rows of leaves that he had the sudden premonition of a bad omen, and the distinct but unpleasant feeling, that he was being watched.

* * *

Sasuke's dream was rapidly turning into a nightmare, he was standing in a world made mostly of blues in blacks, waist deep in a bog that wouldn't shift or give way no matter how he tried to slough through the turgid wasteland. And as if _that_ wasn't enough, Itachi was there as well, up on the other bank, by the black whistling reeds, watching him. 

"You're stuck, little brother." He told Sasuke simply, in that way he always said everything, the explanation that something was not indeed a question, but a fact. That simple monosyllabic tone from Sasuke's childhood, that had the capacity to drive him slowly mad.

That very same calm, cool, collected tone of voice that promised logic and horrible things, the same voice he'd used on Sasuke to calmly tell him that he had destroyed his home, his family and his life.

"Shut up," Sasuke responded in an acidic tone of voice that rattled the putrid water, making it slosh slowly up against the black sand bank, slipping and slapping back down again into the endless rippling abyss of liquid.

"You're already dead, the dead can't talk."

Itachi inclined his head a little to the left at this, as if he was being polite, he appeared to Sasuke the same as he had done when he was thirteen, same handsome strong features in a pale face, same long black hair, same clever hands, same broad shoulders, same sturdy knees, same teasing twitch of his mouth.

"Is that so little brother? Then what am I doing here I wonder?"

Sasuke snarled, still waist deep in mud, his fingers down by his sides feeling the slush and suck on all sides of him. It was a horrible feeling, like being ripped apart from the soles of his feet upwards, if he moved forwards the sucking only got worse and the water deeper. Sasuke Uchiha cursed, wanting to swim, but as soon as he thought that felt something warm wet and slim wrap around one of his legs.

"You're just a projection of my psyche…" Sasuke told Itachi through gritted teeth, trying to bend over and still keep his head above the slime and unwrap the _whatever-it-was_ from his leg.

"You're not real. You don't exist, not anymore I _killed_ you."

Itachi gave him one of those half smiles again, the sort that did, and always would haunt Sasuke and seemed to make the night deeper, dimming the light and making the shadows grow and lengthen in his wake.

It was the sort of smile that made Sasuke feel as if he'd done wrong. As if he'd made some gross oversight, and wasted his life hunting down the wrong person, that Itachi was innocent, that this was all some horrible, sick, twisted misunderstanding.

What Itachi could do with a single look was more then most people could do with a thousand words.

"No," Itachi said slowly, and Sasuke felt himself shiver, "you didn't kill me little brother, someone else did."

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled, suddenly overtaken by rage and anger, the tried to take a step forwards but the thing around his leg pulled him back, so he stumbled and almost submerged.

"I killed you," he hissed, "I killed you, you're only dead-_you're all dead_ _because of me!_ Your dead maggoty body, I saw it! I saw how they ripped your jaw apart and plucked open your ribcage, yours and all of theirs!

I **killed** you!

**I killed you!**

I dug your shallow grave and threw your decaying, lifeless body into it.

I saw where they pulled your eyes from your eye sockets and burnt your flesh, and I saw how they broke your bones, snapped your legs and twisted your arms back before they destroyed your backbone.

I know you died in agony, and I know you knew before you died that that agony you endured was because of me.

You died screaming, because of me.

I killed you Itachi do you hear me?

I killed you!"

There was no answer for a moment, the wind rose and flew over the landscape like death on silent wings, creating ripples in the water that spread across the black like a rising tide. Sasuke wished at that moment that he could have been something more, that he was standing over Itachi's lifeless body, bloody katana in hand and victory smeared across his mouth and lips.

He wished Itachi looked like a murderer, unsettled, mad, a villain from the inside out. Instead Itachi looked vaguely intellectual, dark probing eyes that reminded Sasuke forcibly of their father, that same almost bored expression as though Itachi had figured something out a long time ago and Sasuke still had no comprehension of what it might be.

"You might think you controlled it Sasuke, you might think you had the upper hand-"

"**Shut up!**" His brother yelled, hands over his ears now, listening to the rumbling and cracks of the muscles in his arms and the blood pumping furiously in his ears, "**Shut up!** How could you _understand_? How could you _know_?"

"You might think you made a deal, you might even think you both honoured it, but you know, and I know that all it ever really was-was a-"

"The dead don't talk," Sasuke repeated over and over again, fighting the slipping feeling around his ankles now, "the dead don't talk, the dead don't talk, the dead don't talk, don't talk, don't talk, don't talk, don't talk, …talk."

"Just look now, at what you've done."

Sasuke knew that he shouldn't have, he knew before he raised his head that it was a mistake, he knew as nothing but his own heartbeat rang in his ears like the slam of fists against the skin of a drum over and over again, that he shouldn't.

That he'd see Itachi there, a corpse, strung with bloody tendons, lumps of flesh and fat and the strong over powering stench of decay. That he'd feel the bile crawling up his own throat, and that as the jawless mouth tried to move again, and guttural unearthly words came up and out the scorched throat that he'd never hear them because he'd be screaming too loudly as the thing around his leg pulled him down and under the water, and that he'd slowly drown.

* * *

"**Naruto!"** Sasuke found himself shouting blindly, drenched with cold sweat and not even fully awake. He'd pulled himself out of the makeshift roof of rocks they'd been sleeping under only to start retching the second the fresh air hit his nostrils. His whole body shook violently as he lay there trying to shake of the feeling that he was dying, drowning even, and that he'd be flung to a watery grave with Itachi's corpse lying over him. 

The misty early morning sunshine tousled the back of his head and Sasuke forced himself to swallow down the fear that had suddenly exploded inside his gut. Slowly he clenched and unclenched his hands and willed his body to stop shaking, trying in earnest to banish the overhanging shadow of fear that seemed to be clinging to the back of his skull.

"Naruto," he said again, pushing down the hot lumpy feeling of half digested food back down his oesophagus again, "your fucking cooking is backing up on me, I'm never letting you cook dinner for me again."

He ran his fingers through his hair and tried to plaster the pretence of calm over his body, and ignoring the little tremors of panic that still rippled through him from head to foot, got to his feet.

"Naruto?" he said to an empty clearing.

Another uproar of panic bubbled through him as he saw footprints, Naruto's footprints, moving away from the clearing and into the undergrowth before him. The dense, dark undergrowth, the sort of swallowing darkness that Sasuke had been dreaming about.

He took a step backwards, "Dobe," he muttered, "why'd you go in there?"

"**NARUTO?!**"

No reply.

Swallowing his trepidation and his sense, Sasuke Uchiha went plunging after him.

In fact Naruto hadn't gone that far into the undergrowth. He'd stood for a moment with the most prominent and eerie feeling that he was being watched, hand by his kunai pouch poised and ready to spring at any given second.

The world seemed to go dark, sound becoming silence so utter that Naruto's heart felt as if it might stop, the quiet weighted on him so heavily it felt as if it might crush him.

He shifted uncomfortably.

"Who's there?"

His voice span out and seemed to fall and fade into an intolerable depth, hearing the sound escape into nothing. Naruto's ears, as sensitive as they were, pricked in anticipation of something…anything.

Then quiet suddenly a small chuckle, followed by a word spoken almost hungrily: _"Fool."_

Naruto shook his head, suddenly haunted by the vision of some soft repulsive creature crouched just out of sight around the nearest corner, its huge mouth swallowing as it lurked…waiting for him.

To his left, suddenly, a slight twitch of the undergrowth-and then there!

Like a crack of thunder a small dirty face covered with leaves.

Glassy eyes sunk deep into sockets as though the skin had been stretched tight over the skull.

Naruto let forwards a small yell, he couldn't help it, and his nerves wound tight from the expectation of something much bigger and far more deadly.

The thing-whatever it was, looked no bigger then a small child, it regarded him carefully for a moment, strange-bizarre chuckling noise issuing forth from the bush.

Like a laugh and yet not like a laugh, a dry swallowing sound and then a gulping followed after it, and then as fast as it had appeared, it disappeared again.

Naruto felt the hairs on the nape of his neck stand to attention and his flesh prickle with Goosebumps. There was fear in his eyes, as well as a determination to fight it, it was like a nightmare.

Whatever it was, it was _evil_.

He knew that right down to his marrowbone. He flicked open his kunai pouch and withdrew the cool metal weapon by the handle and let his tongue slide across the dry skin of his bottom lip.

He didn't want this new threat anywhere near himself _or_ Sasuke for that matter, and he wrestled with the idea of calling for Sasuke to come and help and damn whoever that might be listening or catching the thing himself.

_// Watch your back… //_

"Sasuke?" he said softly under his breath, he took a step towards the undergrowth, fluidity in his movements, the carefully rehearsed steps of a ninja.

"Sasuke what is it?"

_// Watch your back…//_

The bush in front of him shuddered and trembled a little, the prickling feeling on the back of his neck intensified and he caught a glimpse of long pointed teeth, bloody eyes and mottled skin.

From far off came a liquid swallowing, his head snapped up, looking away for a second and completely forgetting himself and where he was.

_// Watch your back//_

The dry slithering sound behind Naruto informed the blond a second too late that there was something behind him.

It threw itself at his back as he threw himself to the side, screaming and snarling, a drum roll of high shrieking laughter and an earthquake of sound.

Naruto tripped, fell and went tumbling down a steep slope slippery with mud.   Thorns and sharp twisted branches tore at his flesh, ripping slabs of bloody flesh from his skin.

And Naruto for the second time in a week felt the back of his skull collided with something hard, and as he struggled in vain to keep conscious despite the sick whirlwind of dizziness and nausea felt his eyes close and his mind slip…despite the high pitched giggling and shuffling all around him.

Blinding pain in his arm, zipping across his body and making him fall to his knees, pain in his hips, in his shoulders. Everything was going black.

Those things-oh god those things what were they, hovering over him, foul stench, gripping his wrists and ankles…something agonisingly painful digging into his skin, wriggling under his flesh, eating him alive!

His right leg twitched but he didn't feel it as though it was being jerked by some invisible string. Tugging and tugging but he never felt it. His chest still heaved, his mouth still moved, trying to call out:

"_Sasuke, Sasuke!" _

Then darkness came down and all was gone.

* * *

Sasuke followed the skid marks in the wet earth towards the ditch, thanking someone for the light drizzle that had fallen earlier that same day. For the most part it looked as if Naruto had fallen although he was no expert tracker himself and quietly cursed Naruto for having such big feet. 

It took him just over ten minutes to find him.

Two things sprang to Sasuke's mind when he saw Naruto lying at the bottom of the slope, one was an image of Naruto lying underneath him as he had been at The Valley of the End, and the second was an image of his own mother and father lying in a pool of their own blood whilst Itachi stood in the shadows and watched him scream.

Sasuke slid down the muddy earth towards him, sending splatters of dirt in all directions and saying over and over again: "Please don't be dead. Don't be dead you idiot, don't be dead!"

Naruto was lying on his back; dead leaves and mud smeared across his skin, clothes and hair, and a cut at the back of his head oozed fresh blood a little. A dribbling slide of blood from where he'd sliced it open presumably on a sharp protruding rock.

Sasuke had to calm down, he had to think, he had to be rational, he had to make sure Naruto was still breathing and then check the area to see if whatever it was that did this to him was still there. But as Sasuke fumbled for a pulse in Naruto's neck, he couldn't seem to find one, and fighting the over whelming urge to be sick groped from Naruto's wrist, but he was shaking badly by this time, and found his own fingers to be so cold that he could hardly feel anything anyway.

"Don't you dare be dead!" he snarled at Naruto, leaning over him so he could press an ear to the blond's chest, "I'll _fucking kill you_ if you are dead Naruto, do you hear?"

Nothing, and the panic spiralled higher and higher inside of Sasuke's chest.

Then, suddenly, he heard it.

_Lub-dub…lub-dub…lub-dub…_

Sasuke let out a moan of relief that sounded rather like a sob and balled his hands into clenched fists by his sides, wanting to wrap his arms around Naruto's neck and kiss him awake. Relief came in such sudden waves that he almost felt as if he could cry, like he had cried years ago but had never since. Sasuke wanted to…oh but what didn't he want to do?

It was when he looked about him then that he saw the footprints in the dirt, tiny, clawed indentations around Naruto's body, circling, meandering and then leading away…

Fresh tracks, not half an hour old.

Sasuke's heart stilled.

And wiping the dirt and the smears of clotted blood away from his eyes with the back of his hand, pulled a kunai out of his back pocket and moved stealthily away into the darkness.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Naruto woke up. 

Then he wished he hadn't.

Consciousness hurt, it hurt a lot. It was as if someone had put a red hot poker into the back of Naruto's skull and scraped it around for a bit, it was as if someone had taken a handful of broken glass, grit and sand and thrust it down Naruto's throat.

It was as if someone had placed a multitude of lumpy marbles in his lungs and every time he took a staggering breath in or out they rattled around inside of him, bumping against his ribs and abdominal muscles.

Against all common sense, he tried to sit up.

There was a second of intense and agonising pain ripping up the nerve bundles to his left arm and then he fell back onto the muddy earth again with a grunting yell between clenched teeth.

"_**Shit, fuck**_, what the hell now?" he muttered.

What if those things?

Oh god, where were they?

What had they done to him?

He turned his head to try and look at the place where his arm was throbbing white waves of splintering hot pain but could see nothing past the rise of his shoulder. He tried to lean back, push weight onto his other side, but the slightest hint of movement sent up fresh surges of agony, "God," he said almost inarticulate with pain, "I wonder if this is what childbirth feels like…"

There was a soft noise behind him, a soft slithering over leaves; Naruto felt his heart spasm inside his ribcage. Could he be in a worse position to be ambushed by those pygmies? He couldn't sit up, he couldn't stand up, and he couldn't even move to grab a weapon to defend himself with. He had a vision of gnashing pointed teeth bearing down into him and ripping his body limb from limb and…how had he got into this mess in the first place?

_// Oh yes, breakfast...living berry bush. Never doing that again. //_

"What have you got in your arm?" a voice asked, and Naruto felt such a strong blissful feeling of relief that it almost rivalled an orgasm.

"_**Fuck you Sasuke**_, does it look like I know what's in my arm? I feel I can exactly sympathise with a tortoise when it's been rolled onto the back of its shell."

"You've got something sticking out of it."

There was a cold ripple of foreboding in the tone of Sasuke's voice and Naruto could almost taste his expression. All of Sasuke's fine straight mouth twisting down and compressed into a look of ill-omened certainty as one eye was slightly narrowed and his expression keen and deadly.

"What's in my arm?" the blond asked, trying to keep the rising knot of unease inside of him down at the idea of wriggling worms with mouths filled with sharp serrated teeth eating his flesh while he was still alive. He barely squashed the impulse to yell, _"Get it out! Get it out!"_ as his imagination ran rampant across his minds eye.

Sasuke came stood next him then, ivory skin slightly flushed as though he'd been running a great distance, a slight sheen of sweat over his forehead, his lips were cracked and ribbed with crimson as if he'd been biting them and his black hair dripped with damp, the smell of the forest, earth and rocks. There was a smell of blood too, not his blood, or Sasuke's blood, but dirty, tainted blood and he watched as Sasuke wiped his hands clean on the sides of his trousers.

A suspicion prickled unpleasantly inside his mind.

Sasuke's face hardened suddenly and in one swift movement dropped to his knees and Naruto saw him finger the kunai he was holding in one hand with swift determination. He leant over Naruto then, and the blond could hear the rapid inhale and exhale of his lungs.

"This is going to hurt, a lot."

_// Oh god, it's eating me//_

"_**Just get it out!"**_

There was a swift nod…and then…and then…

Naruto later tried to avoid thinking of what Sasuke did next, it was like that time when he was twelve and had dug the kunai into his own skin to get a poisoned barb out of his blood. Sasuke was no less brutal then he was direct, he plunged the metal object straight in and dug whatever it was straight out. Carving through nerve bundles, veins, only just missing an artery as a thick spurt of warm blood fell to the ground with a heavy plop and Naruto screamed like he was going to die.

Whatever had gone in hadn't been smooth, it had twelve-pointed needle like edges that were jarring into his flesh and digging inside of him. Riddling out small slices of his flesh and pumping something into him that was making his immune system spin and recoil, hot sticky liquid like treacle messing up his insides and the synapses to the brain.

On the third try Sasuke got it out, found it lying on the palm of his hand glinting coolly up at him, grimy with clots and chunks of flesh and still oozing something from it's hollow centre. Ideas of narcotics, poisons, chemicals that altered the brain and normal sensations went spinning through his mind and he put his head down to the wound on Naruto's arm and sucked the blood there, filling his mouth with the warm, sticky, copper tasting substance and then spitting it out onto the earth beside him. Then ignoring his gag reflex and all the desire to vomit until he could vomit no more leant down and did it again, and again, and again.

Sasuke was afraid of the consequences of what would happen if the poison stayed in there, he knew better – had seen better, then to just leave it there.

But he didn't tell Naruto what might have happened, he was afraid to.

* * *

It was half an hour before Naruto could say anything, he was still lying on his back, and Sasuke after bandaging and cleaning out the wound of his arm had decided it was best that Naruto kept still for a while longer, until the whatever it was that had been in that thing, could be completely counter acted by Naruto's souped up immune system. 

Sasuke was subconsciously running his fingers through Naruto's hair, the blond's head resting on his knees and holding the spiny object in front of Naruto's cornflower blue eyes. It was with considerable effort that Naruto propped himself up onto his elbows and turned round to look Sasuke in the eye.

"You killed them didn't you?"

Sasuke's mouth twisted slightly, his grey eyes surrounded by dark feathery lashes darted away and over to some obscure corner of the undergrowth.

"Killed who?"

Naruto swore, "Don't play dumb with me!" he snapped, his fingers digging into Sasuke's wrist, the pressure would bring up Sasuke's skin in welts later but he didn't care.

"You found me here and then went of and killed them, those pygmies-"

"Those _what_?" Sasuke asked, looking genuinely amused.

"Pygmies, whatever they were, you went after them and killed them didn't you?"

Sasuke frowned at him and it was like watching a storm ripple across a sunny day, his eyes clouding with anger, uncertainty, and some secret, something Naruto wanted to prise open with his bare hands and lay out on the floor for them both to see.

"I killed one of them, the other one got away…"

"Got away where?"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders as if it was a matter of no importance, "It just got away." He said in almost a bored voice, but there was something about him, some subtle undertone in the way he was holding his shoulders, or the fact that he was sitting up so straight that alerted Naruto to the fact…made him think…made him wonder…

"You're lying!"

"I'm not lying! I said it got away and it did!"

"You're not telling me the whole truth, you're hiding something Sasuke."

Naruto got to his feet, wincing and hissing, stumbling slightly watching as Sasuke glowered up at him furiously.

"Where did it go?"

Nothing.

"What if it comes back?"

"It _won't_ be coming back."

Something in Naruto's mind clicked at this, the slow turning of wheels and a sudden conclusion, "You didn't make a deal with it Sasuke, did you?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Sasuke yelled, getting to his feet far too quickly for Naruto to be comfortable with. He'd hit a nerve.

"Where did you kill it? Where did it go after it…I was…that thing in my arm?"

"They were dragging you," Sasuke said in dry words that stuck in his throat, words he didn't like to think about.

"They were dragging you towards…."

He didn't finish his sentence.

"Towards? Towards what!? Sasuke what's going on? What was that thing in my arm?"

"I don't know."

Naruto persisted, with more heat, his head spinning and blood boiling inside his veins.

Still the same answer.

He pushed past Sasuke in the direction he'd seen the raven haired youth come from, and pulled away from Sasuke as he tried to pull him back.

_// I don't want you to see… //_

The trail was an easy one to follow, and even if there hadn't have been a trail Naruto would have been able to smell it anyway, dirty, foul blood all over the rocks, earth and trees. The fact that there had been a struggle and then a short but sudden death and the other one had run screaming…screaming down…

"Sasuke," voice hesitant, dreading, craving the answer and abhorring it at the same time "what…_is_ that?"

His answer came slowly back, unwillingly back.

"It's a tunnel."

"And that's the…the body."

Sasuke nodded, his eyes closed, not wanting to look anymore.

Beside the gaping hole that leered up out of the floor forest at them was the body of 'the pygmy' as Naruto had called it. At the edges of the carmine pool surrounding the body, the blood had begun to clot, creating a sickening stench on the humid air around them. And then Naruto saw the words in the dirt that Sasuke had never written, obscene words, nonsensical words and then the same thing over and over again.

'_Fool'_ it said.

The two of them were standing by a huge tree, the sky invisible covered by the thick canopy above them. Sasuke took Naruto's hand and drew him to the tree as if to seek refuge, putting the bulk of it between them and the nightmare.

* * *

A/N: I don't think I can describe enough how much I hated writing this chapter, I just...hated it. Probably because I'm trying to make it creepy, and I suck and fail at that pretty badly and as you can see, here is the result. Cliff hanger, sorry, I'M SORRY! This is probably the um, 6th draft of this chapter, my deadline for it was Monday, but I missed it due to some seriously bad cramps. 

This is going to sound odd but, this month (being October) is actually Fish Bird's official Birthday, it's going to be exactly one year old since I first published the first chapter one last year on the 27th. Now, don't look at me like that, it's a big thing. I've been solidly working on this fic for a whole year and I haven't got bored of it or even thought about having an affair with another fanfiction.

Guys, I might just be ready to write Original Fiction seriously now, after I've finished this of course!

Also, I've met some wonderful people through Fish Bird, it's kind of special to me, my friends have put a lot of their input into this as well, whether it's beta-ing, telling me to hurry up and write, or taking me out for coffee and icecream and a long walk in the park to sort out those AWFUL PLOT BUNNIES! So I actually want to do something, and I thought perhaps a huge music upload and maybe some fanart. I'd love to hear your opinion though, and maybe if you could send me links to things you find amusing or like to pass your time one.

Like this for example: nocturnal-devil(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Fish-cat-ate-my-cat-fish-29099539

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who review last chapter, and I put up some FAQs on my profile because I got about a bazillion emails asking me if Kiba and Shikamaru were gay. Guys, I love you, I actually do, but my friend who actually coaxed me into writing Fish Bird in the first place would actually _**stab me in the jaw**_ if I even attempted that. So, no, sadly, Kiba is the Joey to my Chandler.

To the 'out of the closet' readers:

**EnoMAXX**, **Just Another Nobody**,** Kian**, **Stephanieff,** **ForeverinParis**, **Layrn** (thank you for saying I could be professional writer, that's actually what I really want to do!)

**FearofFallacy** (haha first review really? MAY THERE BE MORE PLEASE?) **Boredwithlifeandlove** (I know you're not a closet reader but you saved the art??? xD Please go stalk Sunshee's gallery I implore you!)

**Kohikari**: do you know how much pleasure and squee time you gave me when I found that link? IT'S AMAZING! Please say you checked out the website 'Songs to wear pants to' as well? And I'm sorry your review was eaten about a million times:'D I really enjoyed reading it though.

**Ochiba-chan**: This update was for you, so lets kill your unlucky reviewer streak right now shall we? Wild horses can't stop me from writing this thing, and as to your queries for character death, I'm liking the idea of reader participation, and these new polls has decided to give us...hoho.

**Yuri-san**: (pulls face) You're absolutely right, my writing style does change chapter to chapter. It irritates the hell out of me, sorry!

**Moonpop**: Come out of the bathroom and stop sulking! xD There's more to come!

**Crystal Promise**: I know, you've reviewed before, but your reviews always make me squee, and the pants line was my favourite part in the last chapter.

**LindyStar**: xD it amazes me that you liked it from the beginning chapter, because if I had been the reader, I would have skipped it! But I'm really glad it made you read forwards, and the picture, guh, the artist is so lovely as well as talented!

**Phi ScarlaDraconia**: Haha, you reviewed didn't you? (loves!)

**Kanoi-chan**: I want to leap on you from behind and hug yo to death for that review, it was gorgeous, and just...just exactly what I was trying to convey in that chapter. I find angsty, possessive men really attractive to write, I'm soooo happy it came across for you there!

**ota-4-life**: Yes, I remember your reviews from before! Thank you for reviewing again!

**Suiryoka**: Um, okay...wow...You actually recc'd Fish Bird and I'm a complete fangirl of Illusions that Break and Love's little lessons. (Is **_SHOT_**) I just...it...you... ah...(tackle glomps but that is not enough to express my wowness and love for you doing that!)

And to end off this stupidly long author's note, thank you to everyone who has revied (or would like to review now :hint hint:) I will be putting polls up soon so you can actually chose what might be happening next, and have a great week!

Oh, and feel free to note me, because I really don't mind my inbox being spammed. Unless it's bad flames, I like good flames, they go on ficrants!


	14. Hate this place

**Fish Bird**

By The Eternity Dragon aka AcaciaBrown

**Chapter 14**: Hate this place

A/N: I'm really sorry this didn't come out sooner, the other story Muse (I don't know if you guys have read it) keeps becoming a dumping ground for all the things I don't get to write in Fish Bird (i.e Itachi) so I'm really enjoying myself over there. I was also sick this week! Woe, or you would have had this chapter update yesterday instead of today. Hope you guys enjoy it anyway, Fish Bird is exactly one year old today!

* * *

"This whole business is messy, what of it?" Shikamaru said testily, wiping the dirt from his hands onto the sides of his trousers and frowning over at where Lee and Choji had last been seen charging off in the wrong direction from where Shikamaru wanted them to go. He'd sent Neji off in pursuit a few minutes before whilst the rest of them prepared to set up camp. 

"Well, nothing really," Kiba said mutely while looking over his shoulder to where Hinata and Ino were standing and sorting out the campfire. "I just thought you were looking a bit harassed, was all."

Shikamaru gave Kiba a dirty look that he missed completely and let out a long taxing sigh.

"It's more difficult then it looks to keep Neji, Lee, and Choji completely in the dark to what we're actually doing. Especially Neji… he didn't make Jounin at such a young age for no reason at all."

"Hm, yeah." Was Kiba's less than enthusiastic response; his hand on Shikamaru's shoulder as the tried to stand on tiptoes to get a better view of Hinata through the trees

"Really difficult to get around Neji, still, you're still smarter than him probably."

"Thank you." Was the sarcastic response that Kiba failed even to hear, too focused on craning his neck forwards so he could no doubt check out Hinata's considerable cleavage at a better angle.

"Look!" Shikamaru snapped as Kiba's hands spanned down the back of his neck. He was tired of Kiba using his shoulder as a ladder as well as the lingering feeling of being physically molested.

"Why don't you go over there and ogle her? I promise you'll get a much clearer view, and on the plus side you wont have to pay for my back surgery."

"I can't go over there and ogle her," his friend replied out of the side of his mouth, "because she'd definitely see me doing it, or worse, what if Neji caught me eyeing up his fiancé?"

"What makes you think he can't see you now?"

Kiba abruptly let go of Shikamaru's shoulder and fell over.

Shikamaru laughed, and turned around to finish the job of pitching the tents.

"She'd pick you over him any day you know."

"She would not!" Was the angry hiss that picked itself up from the floor and helped to hold the tent pole steady whilst Shikamaru bent to tie it in place.

"He's quite ridiculously in love with her."

"So are_you_."

"Yes…well…" Kiba coloured, suddenly embarrassed and looking round for Akamaru who was to be found several meters away, belly in the dirt, chewing on the side of a log.

"I'm not about to launch myself into the middle of a savage love triangle."

"Huh, well," Shikamaru intermitted holding the string in his mouth as he tried to thread it through the canvas lining, "has it ever occurred to you that you might be part of one anyway?"

"Oh, no thank you." Was the auburn haired youth's stern reply, "I've seen what love triangles look like, and it's more angst then I can deal with myself."

"Who do you know that's in a love triangle?" Shikamaru asked, levering himself up in a quick brisk movement and handing Kiba a long metal pin.

"Naruto." Kiba said darkly from the depths of his brown eyes, still looking fierce and concerned all at the same time.

"Oh, I forgot." There was a hint of sadness in Shikamaru's voice as he banged the pin into place with his foot and used a small measure of chakra to hold it in place in the wet and slippy mud.

"Speaking of which," Kiba said in hoarse low tones, hands on knees so he was squatting and leaning into Shikamaru, "I thought the deal was he was supposed to have contacted us by now. We haven't heard a single thing from him since that scribbled note in that hotel room, _'Gone North, getting maps, heading over the ridge.'_ I thought we were supposed to have intercepted, heard each other's plans…you know, plotted?"

"Kiba," Shikamaru said in tones that were close to exasperation, "I don't know how to break this to you, but you are not a spy. There are hundreds of reasons why Naruto might not have contacted us yet. I mean, there's hardly ample opportunity to do it in a forest now is there? Bar writing messages into wood bark, but then that's something that anyone could see, not just _us_, meaning you and I. Remember we're still trying to keep Neji, Lee, and Choji in the dark. They actually believe we're trying to recapture Sasuke and Naruto, so neither of them can come walking into a clearing and ask for a quick chat now can they? When they need to find us, they'll give a sign. Trust me."

Kiba compressed his mouth into a line of resignation and stuck his hands into the depths of his coat pocket, "We'll if you're happy with that explanation Maru, I guess I can't argue with that…"

Shikamaru stamped the last pin into the ground, "Do you think I like guess work?" he with said dry sarcasm, "But you asked a question and I answered it to the best of my ability. They left ahead of us and we're tracking them, the rest of these guys aren't afraid of whatever the hell this _'thing'_ is that we're facing, and so far we haven't seen a hide nor a hair of it and I'd like to keep it that way. So unless Naruto is about to invent a new form of mobile communication, I know as much as you on the subject. So don't ask stupid questions."

"I can't promise anything," Kiba said seriously with a small but gentle smile playing across his lips, "but I can try. I just seem to be spending half of my sleeping hours and most of my waking ones worrying about him and Sasuke."

"Well that makes two of us, apart from the Sasuke part. I'm really just worrying about Naruto."

"You're such a bad liar you know."

"Don't you preach to me." Was Shikamaru's almost testy snap, although his eyes were soft as he stood with his arms folded, regarding their upright tent.

"Yes I'm sorry," Kiba laughed giving him a mock bow. "In this relationship you do all the preaching and it's my job to sit and nod when Naruto's not here and do exactly to opposite of what you say when he is."

Shikamaru snorted derisively, making his way over to the centre of the clearing where a circle of rocks around a small pile of dry tinder wood lay. In the distance they could hear the low murmur of Neji yelling at Lee for going in the wrong direction and the burble of laughter from behind them as both Ino and Hinata found something simultaneously funny.

"I guess I'm just doing my bit for society," Shikamaru continued with reserve, looking about him for the box of matches he'd put down earlier, "converting one heathen at a time."

Kiba gave Shikamaru one of his savage grins, his fingers on Akamaru's head, scratching his beloved dog fondly behind the ears and finding the box of matches in his mouth.

Shikamaru was not pleased to receive a slobbery box of matches with bite marks in it, but several grumpy moments later the first fiery licks of flame sprang up and across the dry tinder as the timber crackled and spat, filling the small clearing with the homely smell of wood smoke.

"How long do you think this will last?" Shikamaru asked quietly as Hinata and Ino walked towards them with uncooked dinner in hand and Lee, Choji, and Neji emerged from the undergrowth looking disgruntled, dirty, and ravenous.

"Until we get into deep water…" was Kiba's enigmatic reply, "until we hear word from Naruto. You're hardly pushing them to look for those two; pushing them enough each day maybe, but it's not exactly the sprint of our lives. We know they're in the area, there's scent evidence as well as footprints, but enough confusion as not to know their general location. This forest is covered in scent, old smells, new smells, familiar smells, strange smells…"

The stick Shikamaru had been using to poke the fire with snapped suddenly and he turned round sharply with a dangerously keen look on his face, "What strange smells?" he asked abruptly, dark slanted eyes all seriousness.

Kiba's mouth compressed and he gnawed his bottom lip, "Every place has new smells Maru, and you don't have to worry until Akamaru raises his hackles."

He rubbed Akamaru's belly, a fine itchy scratchy noise emerging from the canine's course, brittle hair, "When he starts getting worried about it, I start getting worried about it."

"I could eat a horse Ino!" Lee projected over the fire elbowing a seemingly uncomfortable and embarrassed Neji to sit next to Hinata whilst taking a spot around the campfire himself.

"We've come a long way today and not seen a sight of our quarry, it's very disheartening I have to say. But as Gai sensei would say,_'Tomorrow is another day!_'"

"Well for tonight Lee," Ino told him with a saucy smile, "there are beans and a few helpings of canned meat."

"There might be a Horse in that…" Shikamaru said with quiet sarcasm making Kiba laugh, but Ino, as she had been doing all month, and ignored him.

"And for desert there's canned Fruit Salad for everyone apart from Shikamaru who has very kindly volunteered to eat the last can of preserved peaches."

"I'd rather **die**, thank you!" Was Shikamaru's sudden but adamant response as he sat up abruptly, looking outraged.

"Well good," she said with a final toss of her silky blonde hair, "as long as you do it quietly."

Hinata, whom had taken her place between both Neji and Kiba, moved herself forwards sensing the beginnings of a heated argument and quite possibly a brawl (to which Shikamaru would lose simply because he refused to fight Ino ever, even when she presented him with a physical obstacles…such as her fists) and said evenly, "I'll eat them, I liked the preserved Peaches."

"Hinata that's a lie!" Kiba burst out looking mildly impressed and disgusted at the same time as though she'd had offered herself forwards into a ritual containing human sacrifice.

"Yes that is a lie, she shouldn't have to eat them," was Ino's heated response as she rounded on Shikamaru, who looked slightly quailed but stood his ground as if caught between a rock and a hard place. "You, on the other hand, being team captain, have to eat them."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Neji muttered quietly to no one in particular and rolled his eyes.

"I'll eat them." Said Lee, trying to be helpful and missing the frantic waving of the arms from Kiba and the vigorous head shaking from Choji.

"You keep out of this!" Ino snapped ferociously at him, her blue eyes ablaze as Shikamaru sighed.

"Why can't you eat them?" He asked evenly, "You used to be quite fond of them I seem to remember, a long time ago."

Ino paused for a moment, as if she'd lost her footing and had stumbled backwards a few paces as she recalled something.

"Ino can't eat them." Hinata said in a small voice, as if she wasn't sure if she was allowed to speak at all, "The ones we've been given seem to be making everyone feel sick. Ino's already been feeling sick and I don't want her to feel sicker."

"What do you mean you've been feeling sick?" Shikamaru asked with an abrupt sharpness, looking at her with narrowed eyes. "You're not ill are you?"

"Don't be absurd." Ino said flippantly, like it was a matter of little importance. But she'd turned away from him to fiddle with something unimportant behind her back, and he wasn't convinced.

"When have you been feeling sick?" He pressed, not caring that everyone was suddenly staring at them with alighted interest and not a little fascination. Ino continued to fiddle with her back turned to him. Finally, she produced a cooking pot and dumped the meat and beans into it before placing in the fire and tucked her hair neatly behind her ears with an off-handed shrug of her small shoulders.

"In the mornings mostly," Hinata said, with a little hesitance. "This morning, yesterday morning, and the morning before that."

"Hinata!" Ino hissed, looking both upset and outraged at the same time.

"I'm just worried…" was Hinata's almost inaudibly reply, looking almost as if she wanted to cry. Without thinking, Kiba put his hand on hers and leant over to bury his nose in her hair.

Neji shifted slightly, turned, and gave him a cold look.

"I'll be fine," Ino insisted, twisting her hands on her lap, "its probably just period cramps."

"Okay, that's too much information." Kiba said, raising his hands in the air and looking vaguely horrified.

* * *

The rest of dinner passed without too much drama. Although as predicted, an argument did break out over the can of preserved peaches, which was then handled by Neji who declared (after Hinata offered to eat them for the fifth time in a row) that it was unfit for human consumption and threw it behind a tree.

It wasn't before Shikamaru had organized Neji to be on watch first, followed by Kiba and Akamaru, then Lee, then himself, and whilst everyone else was preparing to lay down for the night (somehow he and Kiba were sharing a tent again) did he walk over quite calmly to Ino who was sitting with Hinata going through their medical supplies and told Hinata with his hands in his pockets and a look of seriousness on his face asked politely if she could leave them alone for a minute. Hinata didn't leave until after she asked Ino if she was okay with that and Ino answered by giving her one of those bright smiles, clutching her knees saying of course it was perfectly fine. When they were finally left alone, neither of them spoke for a good long minute.

"Have we got enough of everything?" Shikamaru asked casually, sitting down next to Ino and peering into the contents of the medical box.

"Oh, there are plenty of gauze, bandages, blood pills, energy pills, and that sort of thing," was Ino's falsely bright reply. "I could just about handle it if one or two of you sustain a major injury, but if we're waging war…."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Mmm, lets."

Shikamaru scratched behind his ear, his head tilting to the right, looking almost nervous.

"Ino," he began, but she interrupted him suddenly fierce.

"It's_just _a stomach bug Shikamaru, don't be silly."

"But you don't _know _do you? What if you're…" his voice dropped suddenly and in the dim flickering lights from the distance camp fire and the soft gentle light of the moon and stars he looked pale.

"What if you're pregnant?"

"_**That's enough!**_" She snapped at him, slamming the lid back down on medical supply box.

"I haven't even said anything yet!" Was his quick reply, trying hard to keep his voice down. "You won't even let me get a word in edge ways!"

"That's because I already know what you're going to say." He opened his mouth to protest but she carried on, wrapping the bindings round the medical kit and placing it safely inside her backpack.

"No I don't know if I am, and _yes_, it had occurred to me."

"But Ino, you're so young…we're so young."

"We?" she rounded on him suddenly, her hands balling into fists so her nails left little imprints on her palms.

"Who said anything about _'we'? _This kid, _if_ there is a kid and it's not simply a figment of your over active imagination, isn't necessarily yours."

Shikamaru's eyebrows shot up so fast they were in danger in flying off the top of his head. He felt like saying: 'when has there ever been anyone else' or 'prove it' but settled for, "And Kiba tells me I'm a bad liar."

She gave him a look half way between wanting to burst into tears and hitting him hard across the face, all she did though was sit back on her heels, fold her arms protectively in front of her body and face him down with steely determination. Shikamaru felt like he was about to be run down by an armoured tank.

"I'm not-" he began hesitating because he had the feeling anything he said was going to be taken the wrong way, because he could never get his words out right and she always seemed to grasp the wrong end of the stick, or jump to accusations, or become defensive, or shut him out no matter how desperately he tried to get closer. They'd tried once and it had been a disaster, and now they were still gaining ground from where they'd slipped over the last time. Everything seemed pockmarked with mistakes like sharp pieces of shrapnel.

"I'm not pointing fingers, or making accusations, I just want to know…" he looked over his shoulder checking to see whether or not they were really alone, "If there was…" He made a '_Hrum'_ noise in his throat.

"Would it be mine?"

She faltered for a moment, and for one of those rare seconds looked vulnerable, Shikamaru was grasped then by a sudden urge to kiss her, but then remembered their shouting match across the floor of the Ramen shop less than a month ago, stemmed the urge to lean forwards and brush their lips together.

"Probably…" she said with more conviction than she had meant to imply, she knew in her head that there wasn't actually anyone else but she didn't want to tell him that. In fact she never wanted to tell Shikamaru anything that might show him how desperately she was in love with him, because she was always afraid that in the back of her mind he was looking down on her. She was proud and independent but very easily hurt, like she always had been.

She waited for his next few words, thinking them likely to be: 'abortion' and, 'it's for the best' and 'you're too young', or even, 'I don't want it'. But instead he said, still pulling that same expression as if he didn't quite believe what he was saying but had decided to say it anyway.

"Then, I think we should get married."

First she was speechless, then she was stunned, and then she was angry.

_Very_ angry.

"I don't want your pity!" her voice decibels below a shrill shriek of rage, "What makes you even _think_ I would lower myself to being forced into a marriage when neither one of us…can…can…just because…because I got myself knocked up! I don't need _you_ in order to have a kid!"

Shikamaru had placed both his arms over the top of his head the second her voice had threatened to split his skull open.

"I didn't say you needed me," he said with feigned calmness, very aware now that everyone had stopped what he or she were doing and had turned round to stare at them.

"I just thought it would be the _right_ thing to do."

It was as if he'd pressed a magic button that had made her see red and kept his thumb pressed firmly on it, it was as if he had deliberately goaded her or was being nasty on purpose. He wasn't trying to woo her, he wasn't trying to tell her that he loved her; he was being exactly how she'd thought he would be if he'd ever found out. He was being analytical and deeply logical down to his marrowbone and it moved Ino into a trembling rage.

She stood up, hands quivering with anger as she brushed off the dirt from her knees.

"Don't you ever, Shikamaru Nara, ask me that again." She said in deathly hushed tones, her heart in her mouth, "I am never going to marry anybody whom I don't love and doesn't love me equally in return, and if I am pregnant I hope to god this baby doesn't know what a heartless pig their father is!"

Then she turned round and walked away.

* * *

"Well, you weren't exactly courteous were you?" Kiba told him more then asked with all his usual tact as they both stared up at the top of their tent ceiling, backs to the hard earth floor beneath them.

"What was I supposed to say?" his friend snapped back at him, his insides were writhing from both embarrassment and anger. It wasn't a rational anger either, 'How dare she refuse! How dare she!' a voice inside his mind kept repeating over and over again, whilst another little voice said 'Thank goodness she refused, you didn't to be married to her anyway did you?'

Did he? Did he want to be married to Ino? Was that very complicated and sometimes down right fanatical feeling he felt towards her love? And even if it was, love alone can't make a marriage work. She drove him crazy on a regular basis, and he was pretty sure she couldn't stand being around him, so was their relationship based on a purely physical attraction towards each other…when they were fifteen and on that mission together had that all been…?

He shook his head trying to dislodge pictures of dandelions, tall grass being blown in a warm gentle breeze under the sun and Ino smiling at him whilst he…

"I can't believe you just asked me 'What was I supposed to say', I'm supposed to be the dumb one in this relationship Maru, it makes me nervous when you ask me to perform a role reversal."

"I can't bloody well read her mind!" His angular eyed friend hissed back, banishing the thoughts to the back of his head and clapping one hand over his forehead.

"I offered her a completely rational decision, and it blew up in my face,

End-of-story. There's no pleasing her!"

"You didn't tell her you loved her." Kiba said simply, linking his fingers together and placing them behind his head with a leisurely yawn.

"She didn't want me to say that." Was Shikamaru's stubborn reply, "She was just look for an opportunity to blow up at me, because I got her pregnant."

"It takes _two_ to tango." Kiba answered with an irritating about of conviction in his voice.

"Any excuse you two, and you were off like _rabbits_."

"You're such a liar!" Shikamaru responded with an incredulous laugh, "Don't sex it up in your head."

"Well perhaps that's a bit extreme," Kiba admitted, wiggling down low into his sleeping bag, "you don't have that much stamina."

Shikamaru considered hitting him, but it was too bothersome to reach over in the dark, cramp, confines of their tent and bob Kiba on the head.

"But if you'd proposed to me like that, I would have certainly said no."

Shikamaru propped himself up on his elbows in the dark, "You would consider saying 'Yes'? No, please don't answer that question, I fear the answers you might give me."

"And I am very fond of you." Kiba continued as if Shikamaru hadn't spoken at all, "But a marriage proposal has to come from the gut, you have to mean it and be willing to put yourself on the line and look a fool. You need to be romantic, you need to be passionate…you need to…need to sweep her off her feet and convince her you're madly and wildly in love with her and no other man will ever make her happy but you."

"Well, seeing as I'm none of those things." Shikamaru responded tartly, lying back down again, I guess I should give up right now and wave the white flag before one of us declares war. She might not even be pregnant Kiba."

His friend said nothing for a moment, and they lay listening to the sounds of the night outside, the noisy chirp of cicadas singing to each other under the moonlight, the drip of moisture from one leaf to another in the branches of the trees all about them. The low crackling of the fire and the gentle inhale and exhale of the huge dog outside their tent, a small pebble falling against the side of their tent and sliding down the canvas, and on a up turned log they could hear Lee humming to himself as he kept watch.

"You still love her, whether she's pregnant or not." Kiba said after a moments pause with stern finality. There was the leathery slide of another pebble falling against their canvas tent and sliding quickly to the forest floor.

"I don't even know what love is." Shikamaru countered petulantly, "Least of all when it comes to her, I-OUCH!" A much larger pebble this time came sailing at the canvas wall, colliding this time with Shikamaru's head, it ricocheted off the base of his crown and went skidding away into the darkness.

**"WHO THE BLAZES IS THROWING STONES AT MY HEAD?!"** he yelled, massaging his skull and leaning forwards to yank down the zipper to the front of the tent. Then they heard somebody chuckle, then it all made sense.

"Kiba, get out the tent and go to the toilet."

"But I already went…"

"Don't argue with me, just GO!"

Kiba made an upset whine and crawled out the front flap before Shikamaru could kick him out, he went nosily, grumbling, waving at Lee and asking him not to look whilst he did his business. Lee turned about; hands over his eyes and a hand came round the base of the tent flap.

A hand that was not Lee's, not Neji's, not Ino's, not Hinata's or Kiba's. A tanned hand, and then a blond head, and then shoulders and the rest of Naruto's body.

"Took you long enough." Shikamaru told Naruto acidly, massaging the bump on the top of his head.

"How long were you waiting for?"

"A few hours." Naruto said breathily, his wide expressive mouth drawn into a long grin.

"I wasn't going to try anything with Neji on watch."

"Good call," Shikamaru said nodding, "where's Sasuke?"

"Close by, watching too. He'll give a whistle if something out of the ordinary happens."

"Like that you mean?" Shikamaru gestured to the bandage on Naruto's upper arm, his face dark and concerned.

"Yeah," Naruto replied warningly, "like that. I've come to talk to you about that actually…" but he was hushed as Shikamaru put a hand over his mouth and shook his head suddenly.

The tent shivered and Kiba came through the entrance flap grumbling, he wrinkled his nose at Shikamaru and gave Naruto a savage grin pulling him quickly into a bear like hug.

"Took you long enough," he said gruffly, "this one here's" he jerked his head in the direction of Shikamaru, "gone mad. He proposed to Ino this evening."

"_**Get out!**_" was Naruto's shocked but very much impressed response, "I didn't think he had the balls to do it."

"Oh it was only because he got her pregnant!"

Naruto's mouth opened and shut for a moment, before he turned round, blue cornflower eyes wide and said almost in awe:

"Your mother is going to kill you Shikamaru when she finds out."

"Can we leave my mother out of this please? In fact can we leave that entire general area alone? Or did you just come here for a general chit-chat?"

Naruto grinned again, "I did come here for a chit-chat actually, but not of the nice kind. I need to tell you guys something…"

Kiba leaned forwards and Shikamaru frowned as Naruto's voice lowered to a hoarse whisper as he began to retell what had happened to him, half way through he pulled the bandage off his arm to show Shikamaru the strange shape of the wound. Naruto's fast immune system had reduced it to nothing more than an oddly shaped scar, but the fact that you could see any damage at all spooked Shikamaru somewhat. A wound in a normal person in a more vital spot would probably kill them within an hour, and they didn't even know what liquid the thing was pumping in.

"So," Kiba said thoughtfully after Naruto had stopped his hand gestures, "we have to make sure we aren't attacked by small pygmies?"

"There not pygmies, Kiba." Shikamaru said slowly grinding them out between his back teeth.

"Okay, so they're small and deadly."

"What else did Sasuke tell you Naruto?"

Naruto swallowed here, looking uncertain, his gaze flickering a moment to where his hands were resting on his knees.

"He told me he saw them when he was with Orochimaru, and that there are probably a lot more, scattered about the place. He told me they're probably colonising somewhere, you know, like a nest? And that we have to find the nest and destroy it, but the longer we leave it, the bigger it's going to get. Those things are breeding, they're increasing by the minute, if they go to full out war on Konoha they'll win by sheer force of numbers. Likelihood is most have already begun to migrate down that way anyway, in which case they'll be leaving the nest opened and exposed for us too…"

"Wait," Shikamaru raised a hand, fingers to his temple concentrating whilst Kiba just looked lost.

"You're saying these things are like an ant colony?"

"Pretty much, or at least that's what Sasuke implied."

"Did he imply where they came from?" Shikamaru questioned sharply, he was looking at Naruto's arm again, and his dark brown eyes were grave.

"Not as such…well, it sounded like it was something Orochimaru was experimenting on…" Naruto said slowly, nibbling at his lower lip.

"He said that?"

"It was implied."

"Then he's lying to you."

Naruto's face became cold suddenly and he sat back on his heels, "I think I'd know if he was lying to me, Maru."

Kiba shifted uncomfortably, he didn't want an argument to break out between the two of them, but he thought it was probably more than likely, so he busied himself with not making eye contact with anyone and clearing his throat as inconspicuously as possible.

"You do realise," Shikamaru said after a moment's pause, "that that Jutsu you're using is probably somewhat impairing your judgement."

"W-what, uh, how?" Naruto asked cornflower blue eyes wide with a slight undertone of serious panic, almost as if he'd had suspected something himself.

"What Jutsu?" Kiba questioned coming up from his long inspection of the sleeping bags.

"The forbidden one I taught him to use," Shikamaru said lightly as if he was regretting speaking at all from horrified look on Naruto's face.

"It's a binding Jutsu, it's suppose to be used on enemies if you have to drag a captive back to base and can't do it any other way. But they banned it soon after it was discovered."

"Why?"

"When you bind chakra with someone, it tends to more than just keep them within a physical distance of you. They banned it, because of a number of occasions it proved to have side effects that weren't exactly desirable when two nations are war."

"Such as?"

Shikamaru hesitated before he continued, his eyes level with Naruto's and not daring to look away.

"Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? Sometimes there were cases of captors and captive becoming…emotionally attached to each other. It impaired judgement, increased the amount of endorphins sent to the brain simulating-"

"Well I guess," Naruto said with a finality that broke through the awkward air between them, "that the sooner I can break that Jutsu the better. But don't imply that my judgements impaired Shikamaru. My judgement has never been clearer."

No one said anything for a while, the sounds of Lee wandering around the campfire humming to himself became prominent once again, the wet scuffle of leaves underfoot and the scrunch of rocks against the earth.

"Look I didn't mean to imply-" Shikamaru burst out wondering how many more people he was going to offend before the night was out, but Naruto cut him off with a shrug of his shoulders and that easy carefree grin.

"I'll worry about myself and Sasuke alright? You just worry about everything else and what I'm going to do tomorrow."

Kiba and Shikamaru sent each other looks at this.

They both said in unison, "What _are_ you doing tomorrow, Naruto?"

The Kitsune gave them a fox like grin, withdrawing the curled pages of a map from the insides of his jacket and laying it out on the tent floor.

"When we stopped at the village, I convinced the elder to give me these maps you see. What you don't know is that they used to mine diamonds up here, but then they had to stop because there was a war and the enemy infiltrated the mines and blew most of them up. But there is one tunnel, which according to my sources (Kiba made a low impressed whistle here) still remains intact. But best of all it leads right to the other side of the mountain. I mean that's cutting days, a week even off this journey."

"And you're seriously thinking about going through? Naruto that's suicide! You don't know what the hell is down there! You could get lost, or you could die! You could be ambushed! The whole tunnel could collapse down on you and you'd be trapped!"

"Or I could get through and manage to save Sakura before these things kill her, and the rest of them. There are people on the other side; we don't know how much time we have. But I'm going to give you the location to the tunnel mouth so you can see it, or, if you want to, go after us."

"Oh, goodie." Was Shikamaru's reflexive response, dripping with such sarcasm his tongue almost drowned in it.

He spent another half an hour arguing with Naruto but the Kitsune remained stubborn and unmoved, and eventually, with an almighty shrug of his shoulders and a shake of his head he said, "Fine, but if you're in trouble when you come back up to the surface again, send two red flares. There are some in the bag behind the tent; you can pick them up on your way out. And Naruto, don't do anything heroic."

"Me?" the blond said with an almost vulpine grin, "When have I ever been heroic?"

Kiba pressed his forefingers over his closed eyelids and sighed, "It gives me the heebie-jeebies when he says that because you always know he's about to go off and try to save the world."

"Kiba," Shikamaru said sternly, "you need to go to the toilet again."

"Don't tell me what to do with my bladder!" Kiba snapped at him, "Lee's going to think I have Diarrhoea at this rate. Why don't you go to the toilet?"

But Shikamaru fixed him with such a look that with a grumble and a sigh he climbed out his sleeping bag once more, gave Naruto another bear like hug, ruffled the top of his blond hair, and then crawled out the front flap of the tent again.

"You better go."

"Yeah, I should."

There was an awkward pause and then they both leant forwards into a clumsy embrace and then broke apart again.

When Kiba came back in again, complaining about the lack of loo roll and leaves being unsuitable he asked Shikamaru what the matter was.

Shikamaru replied that there was something in his eye and that he was tired.

Kiba thought he knew otherwise.

* * *

"I'm almost surprised to see you back again." Sasuke said softly, Naruto was looking up into the branches of a tree; hand on hips, the moonlight cascading gently across his hair and face.

"Almost?" he said with a small smile, the shadows seemed to stipple and waver for a moment, pricks of starlight falling through the forest canopy.

Sasuke swung his legs; he had that knowing smirk of a smile on his face, like he thought Naruto couldn't resist coming back to him, and that he always would come back to him no matter what.

"Shikamaru thinks your lying you know."

"I'm sure he does."

"Are you lying?"

"I've told you everything you need to know."

He'd avoided the question, Naruto thought, and it was impossible to tell anything from Sasuke's expression, eyes like silver mirrors and his mouth half a wry smile as if Naruto had said something that was vaguely amusing.

"Sasuke," Naruto began again, a little more urgent this time, "if this is a wild goose chase I will never forgi-"

But as he struggled to finish his words Sasuke descended gracefully from the boughs of the tree and pulling Naruto forwards swallowed the rest of his words as he covered Naruto's lips with his own. Nobody talked for a while after that, Naruto protesting at first but opening his mouth to left Sasuke's tongue slide inside and winding his fingers through Sasuke's thick dark hair, and Sasuke pressing Naruto too him as if he was something precious to keep hold of forever and ever.

As they broke apart, Naruto breathless, his eyes fluttering half closed and wondering if he was mad, if he was insane, if he was chasing his tail round and round in a circle. He tilted his head up to look at Sasuke, his cheeks flushed with a tinge of desire and confusion, his fingers on Sasuke's shoulders firm and reassuring.

"But you haven't told me everything…have you Sasuke?"

Sasuke's fingers scraped the tousles of blond hair away from Naruto's forehead, his right forefinger skidding across Naruto's cheekbone and then tracing the horizontal lines with the tip of his finger.

"There's nothing else you need to know, I promise."

"But Sasuke…" Naruto began, his body tensing as he tried to push away, "that's not the same thing as knowing everything. Knowing how all of this came about, and knowing what you're doing here in the middle of everything, here, with me! I have a right to know."

"I promise you," Sasuke's grip as unyielding on Naruto as his voice, it didn't succumb to emotion but more to firmness and finality. Something Naruto thought he could trust, or was that a misconception? Is that what Shikamaru had meant? Was his judgment being impaired because he was…Naruto shook his head and tried to listen to Sasuke, he trusted Sasuke didn't he? Didn't he? They'd got this far hadn't they? He wasn't about to let it all fall apart now…

"I've told you everything that's going to help _you_ rescue Sakura, you don't need to know about me because that's not important. And if the time comes when I have to deal with what I've done, then that's exactly what I'll do. But you asking you to trust me Naruto, can you do that?"

The blond let out a low chuckle, he said bluntly, "It's like walking into a lions den with blindfold on. But I'll do it, because I don't have another option."

They stood there for a moment, eyes closed breathing in, and out, like there was nothing more important in the world for them to do at that point. When Sasuke pulled away Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled something out looping it around a string before throwing it at Sasuke who caught it deftly, looking puzzled.

"It's a promise," Naruto said stubbornly, hands in pockets, his mouth upturned, mulish and apprehensive at the same.

"It's a promise, that after all of this is said and done, we're going to be alive at the end of this."

Sasuke opened his hand and saw simple gold band and the blood stone gem twinkling up at him in the dim light, he held it by it's string and let it fall. Judging the weight and the swing of it, they both watched it sway back and forth and back again.

"Naruto," he didn't question why he'd given it to him, or what he was supposed to do with it apart from wearing it around his neck, but it seemed important to say it.

"Naruto, at the end of this, I promise I'll come back to you."

* * *

A/N: I have to admit when I write Lee I think of Hugh Laurie in Blackadder… 

If you liked it, review.

Also, Erica sent me some glorious fanart, which you can find here i19(dot)photobucket(dot)com/albums/b159/EternityDreams/fishbirdsketches(dot)jpg

She's such an amazing artist!

**Happy Birthday Fish Bird, you're nearly to the end of part one** :'D!

Oh and as a last note, I keep getting people asking 'dude what's up with Sasuke's no chakra thing?' Guys, it's part of the plot, at some point I am obviously going to explain it along with a lot of other stuff, but right now, you're as in the dark as Naruto.


	15. Extreme Ways

**Fish Bird**

By The Eternity Dragon/AcaciaBrown

**Chapter Fifteen**: Extreme Ways

**Disclaimer**: I know a lot of people are getting fed up with Kisimoto's nonsense in the manga. I am too, but you know something? I am pretty prepared to wait it out until we get back onto the good stuff again. Also, I really REALLY hate Hitman Reborn. The End

A/N: Ladies and Gentlemen, I advise you turn the lights on and open the door-just hold onto the edge of your seat now. Also, this chapter is dedicated to **Erica** for the awesome fanart and just for overall being an awesome person. (Remember those banana pancakes now.)

* * *

Kiba and Neji had split up fifteen minutes ago. It was a warm day with the sun shining hotly against the forest canopy overhead, sending warm spirals of air up from the forest floor and into the earthy sultry air. Akamaru was enjoying himself too, loping between the trees, his huge paws scraping the ground as he leapt playfully from the tree trunks and into the springy tufts of grass lining the forest floor. Every once in a while he'd turn back, his muzzle wrinkled in a dog like grin, checking that Kiba was still behind him, that master was still there with him. 

Kiba was doing exactly what was expected from him, it was a beautiful day and he was stuck in a forest doing scout duty with none other than Neji Huyga. Not that he disliked Neji but it was more than a little awkward to wonder round with a man whose fiancé you were more than desperately in love with. And if that wasn't bad enough, he was pretty sure Neji knew that too. Neji kept making little comments such as "Oh yes." or "Really?" and even once "Are you very sure?" with a very subtle inclination of his head, which seemed to suggest he was actually implying something else. Kiba had to keep smiling however and then politely change the subject, sending pleading looks over to Akamaru who then rubbed his huge body against Kiba's legs and almost sent him flying.

Thank god the path had forked a little way back forcing them to spilt up, sarcasm was one thing but underhand bitchiness was something Kiba had never been able to tolerate very well. At home when either his sister or his mother had had a bone to pick with him there had been a rally of sharp words, sometimes a brawl but it had always ended with cleared air. With Neji it was almost as if the guy kept all his personal feelings in a muted grey storm cloud around his head, you knew things were there but the objects moving in the swirling mass of blacks, greys and whites were too fuzzy for a person to pick out and have a good look at. Kiba found it unnerving, and after making arrangements with Neji to meet up within the next half an hour had sprinted off in the opposite direction as fast as possible.

Oh he was going to kill Shikamaru when he saw him next!

Of all the people to be paired up with it had to be Neji! Not Choji, not Ino, not even Lee whom he got on well with and liked. Shikamaru might claim he was no matchmaker, but enjoyed stirring the bucket when he could, from a great distance of course.

Kiba snorted and kicked the side of a tree in his bad temper; a squirrel skittered away into the branches and from the trees around him the birds took flight. It wasn't like Kiba had _meant _to be in love with Hinata, he hadn't sat down and purposely plotted the whole crazy scheme up. He hadn't even noticed until they were both fully grown and someone had asked her casually out on a date in front of him and the next thing he knew both him and the other man were on the floor, two bloody and split lips, trying to claw out each others eyes.

A little to his left he could hear a scratching noise in the undergrowth, he pursed his lips and whistled, expecting it to be Akamaru. He heard his dog give a little snuffle as the heat of the day and the forest pressed against his nose, Kiba found himself sneezing, and seized by a sudden impulse to climb the tree and stick his head out of the forest canopy to gulp down some fresh air. He wiped the sweat forming under his headband, put his hands on his hips and examined the tree in front of him. It wouldn't hurt to look, just for a moment would it?

Within seconds he was scaling the tree and pushing himself up into the top most branches, as soon as his head broke through the stifling tree canopy he was drinking down cool sweet air like a dying man. Loving the wind on his face and grinning at the clear blue sky above him, he climbed higher into the tree, swinging up onto the top most branches and turning to take in the landscape. All around him the trees rose like grassy massive hills, dark trees, red trees, light trees, thick trees, ferny trees, pine trees, conifers, oaks and the occasional sycamore. Kiba couldn't help but grin. He loved wilderness for all it's little hills and valleys and mountain ranges, like the one just in front of him, the one with the black spiralling columns of…smoke rising up behind it?

Kiba almost fell out of the tree in panic, he whistled again hoping to bring Akamaru to him, if the Land of the Waterfall was behind those mountains it was burning, the whole country must be up in smoke.

He whistled again, but there was no answering reply from Akamaru.

"Boy?" he yelled down the tree trunk, nothing.

Nothing moved.

Nothing stirred.

The forest was totally silent.

"Akamaru?" he jumped down to the forest floor and looked about him, he felt a closing stillness in the bushes all about him. A little click of claws into earth, he took a slow step backwards as a knot of anxiety rose forwards in his gut.

"Where's my dog?" he asked no one, and no one answered back, far off in the distance Kiba thought he heard a liquid swallowing. Like some putrid, half dead creature licking it's puffy lips with a rotting tongue, eyes glazed and crusted over. It was hard to see clearly in the pressing darkness, hard to hear in the stifling silence; hard to smell in the soup of warm scents he inhaled with every breath.

And yet…there was a strange smell…an _'Other'_ smell. Something that was not quite right and it was _everywhere_ how could he have missed it before? The whole forest stank of that smell, it was like ammonia, and it made your eyes water and the back of your mouth gag with the stench.

He had to get out of here; he had to get out of here now!

What was he doing! He was just standing there and that smell was getting closer and closer and closer!

Akamaru!

Where was Akamaru!?

Why couldn't his dog hear him?

Was he hurt?

Was he injured?

Was he dead?

Kiba didn't want to contemplate it…he couldn't he turned and ran as the smell got worse and something scuffled (…or did it slither?) out of the undergrowth and after him.

There was a sharp evil little squeal like a struck pig, but he didn't turn round to check what was after him, his concentration solidly focused on making back to the others, he couldn't get lost.

That would be the end of it all if he went the wrong way with this…_this creature_ behind him. He stumbled suddenly, hearing the thing behind him bearing down on him, he could feel it gnashing its teeth, and suddenly the images of Naruto's story flooded back into his mind. Something cold and metallic writhing about beneath his skin, little demonic creatures feasting on his flesh, gnarled hands pawing at his clothes, reaching round his neck to strangle him as he slept.

Then suddenly as he burst his way out into a clearing he realized he'd never seen before it occurred to him…it occurred to him that somehow he'd gone the wrong way.

Somehow his senses had become confused.

His mind span, it made no sense, was this a Genjutsu?

There was an awful realization that perhaps in fact no one had perused him and that this was all a trap came crashing into his mind like a flood of water. He wheeled round suddenly determined to run back the way he had come when something dark, pointed and shiny flew at him from the branches of a tree and struck him just below his heart.

Kiba staggered backwards as he looked about the clearing in surprise, a sudden whirlwind of colours rising up before his eyes. From the branches of a tree close by he heard an inhuman giggling and a soft dry swallowing. Far off he could hear Akamaru howling, searching for his master. Kiba opened his mouth to call back, but up came a mass of pink froth, he gasped, almost choking, and looked down at his chest to see the clot of cardinal red blood dripping down the front of his chunnin jacket from a perfectly round wound that had slipped in between his ribs.

"_Fuck_," he muttered, "that really kinda hurts."

Then he collapsed.

* * *

"God damnit this is taking forever!" 

"Naruto," Sasuke ground out from between his back teeth, "would you just shut the hell up and keep climbing?"

Naruto grumbled at this, but seeing as Sasuke's feet were less than four inches above his head thought better of it and continued his slow but careful descent down the rock face.

In the past twelve hours Naruto had been plagued by the idea of Stockholm syndrome, he'd sat thinking through combining chakra with someone, how it could change his perception without him noticing, how it could strengthen and twist emotions that were already there, how it might be warping his relationship with Sasuke. This morning he'd started to avoid eye contact with Sasuke, making inane…useless…distracting little comments whenever Sasuke tried to breach something slightly personal, not that he did that a lot. Last night when they had been lying next to each other gazing at the stars overhead and basking in the warmth of the night, Sasuke had pointed out all the star constellations his father had taught him when he had been a boy.

Naruto had smiled, "I didn't know you liked that sort of thing." He'd said, their shoulders brushing against each other as they lay side by side.

"I'd forgotten I knew." Sasuke had replied simply, a distant expression on his face as if he'd been looking at something beyond the sky.

He'd turned his head then, dark hair falling across his forehead and in that one moment had looked strangely vulnerable, whilst his forefinger and thumb had brushed across Naruto's open hand, lacing their fingers together slowly.

"Sometimes you make me remember things I'd buried a long time ago."

Something in Naruto's chest gave a painful twinge, as if a long clawed hand had reached into his ribcage and plucked on a heartstring so hard it was in danger of snapping.

Naruto opened his mouth to say: "You're not alone you never will be, I won't let you be Sasuke. I wish you'd tell me everything, every single moment, all the heartache, all the pain, all the hurt, all the sadness. You don't have so sit there alone in it Sasuke; it's too much for one person. Don't let it eat you alive! Don't let it, don't let it!"

But all he got out was the word "Sasuke…" in a hoarse voice because his throat threatened to close up on him and choke him to death.

Sasuke had leaned over then pressing his forehead against Naruto's, his eyes closed, breathing slowly as Naruto watched the rise and fall of his chest and wondered if this was his last night on earth.

"I don't remember anything about my parents." He'd said quietly, "If that helps in anyway, whenever I think about a mother and a father my mind goes a complete blank, isn't that sad?"

His own eyes were closed now as he continued, it was horrible feeling like little knives ripping up his insides piece by piece bubbling through his chest, he hadn't even told Sakura this so why the hell was he telling Sasuke?

"You know when children invent their own parents? Well I never did, I couldn't imagine two people on this world giving birth to me…giving birth to a monster. Something that people were frightened of, something other children threw rocks and stones at and adults pointed at and whispered about behind closed hands. Sometimes I used to wonder if I was actually the child of some huge monster-you know the kind that eats people? And one day, my true form would rip through my skin and I'd be able to see what everyone else was so afraid of."

He'd laughed then - a sound devoid of happiness or humour, fingering the ring around Sasuke's neck not really seeing anything much at all part from the dark and the blood red glint of the stone.

"I don't think you understand how happy I was to find Iruka, I think I would have gone mad without him."

He felt Sasuke's fingers twining into the hair at the back of his head and breathed slowly in, treasuring the closeness between them and yet some part of him, some small part of him recoiling, steeped in worry and doubt.

"Naruto, when you say things like that, it makes me want to go kill every single one of the bastards that did that to you."

Naruto's eyes had sprung open at this, "Sasuke," he'd said with a quaky laugh "don't be ridiculous!"

But he'd found the smoky black irises of Sasuke's eyes to be completely serious and the intensity of that frightened him a little, was this complete obsession with Sasuke slipping to love? Was he in love _in love _with Sasuke Uchiha? His heart had beat faster in his chest and the places where Sasuke was touching him, skin on skin seemed to burn. Oh there had always been an incredible amount of heat between them, but now it just felt like the two of them were on fire.

As Sasuke leaned over him he felt dizzy, full of hot sensation as Sasuke pressed his mouth to Naruto's neck biting and nuzzling him, playful and yet serious.

"I'd kill for you, Naruto." He said simply after a moment, breaking the kiss he had started, hands either side of the blond's head, there was no escaping that look, almost as if Sasuke was giving something to Naruto, something he'd never given to anyone before.

"I died for you once." Naruto said with hesitation, that look was doing something, as if he was sitting on the top of a long slippery slope that slowly…achingly slowly was sending him down. All over his body little jolts of electricity, little pins and needles of excitement and sensation skittered across his skin, it was like a buzz of charka inside of him throbbing to get out.

"I remember." Had been Sasuke's only reply, there had been no apology, he'd put his lips to the place where he'd once…a long time ago thrust his fist straight through Naruto's chest, fracturing bone and slicing flesh until it he'd felt the cool air behind Naruto's back.

"Lucky I missed your heart then…" Sasuke looked up at Naruto again small teasing smile, meeting those blue eyes, eyes like he'd never seen before, so perfect, so blue, so wide, so innocent, so sad….

Naruto met his gaze, his lips very slightly parted, the starlight creating pools of crystalline light against his irises.

"No," he said slowly, fingers kneading the earth beneath them, "I don't think you did."

Sasuke without thinking dared to say it, it felt right, felt in time, felt perfect. For once in his life he didn't feel at odds with himself, he wasn't thinking about the past or the future, he was living only in the present…in that second and that second was with Naruto.

"I-" he began, three words, that's all it was, three easy words and it would be off his chest forever. But something in Naruto closed down in that second, some window Sasuke had been looking into slammed shut as Naruto turned his head away sharply and said with almost fierce abruptness, "Well I guess we better get to sleep, big day tomorrow after all."

It was like a slap in the face, or an ice-cold bucket of water. For a second he was too shocked, too hurt (and that surprised even himself) to say anything at all. He fought the stinging sensation in his chest and giving Naruto a curt nod stood up and extended his hand towards Naruto as if they'd just completed a particularly rigorous spar. Not that he would ever be sparring with Naruto again, not if he didn't want it to lead to something _else_ anyway.

There was hurt in Sasuke's eyes, Naruto could see it from a mile away but he found it preferable to the tilting precipice of emotion that Sasuke had been edging him towards before. At least with this he could expect them to be both defensive, but if he'd allowed Sasuke to continue….

It wasn't that he didn't feel for Sasuke, but he didn't think either of them was ready to say those words and not have it said back, and Naruto didn't know if he could truthfully say it back.

He could say them to Sakura because it was true, he did love her, he loved all of her and he always had done. But it was an uncomplicated feeling like getting up in the morning and deciding which cereal he wanted for breakfast. With Sasuke he wasn't sure if he hated him more than he loved him, or if it was even love, more like a binding involuntary obsession that wouldn't leave him until he died. Yes he'd let Sasuke kiss him, hold him, touch him, feel him, be in him, simply because that had felt right because the physical attraction that ran between them danced and sparked like a hot wire. But there was a difference between being sleeping with someone and making love with them, the emotional level could shatter them both if they weren't careful. What if Naruto became too dependent on Sasuke? What if Sasuke became to dependant on Naruto? Or, what if Sasuke left him, again? He couldn't survive another broken heart, he just couldn't, he'd be beyond repair and Sakura, Shikamaru and Kiba wouldn't be able to pick up the pieces.

It was safer just to pretend that neither of them felt anything towards each other at all, but then again this is always easier said then done.

As Sasuke and Naruto climbed slowly down above them the tunnel entrance became smaller and smaller, casting it's lonely single ray of sunlight into the seemingly bottomless void beneath them. They had picked early morning to go down, Sasuke telling Naruto that the creatures seemed to like to avoid sunlight and were less active during the day, and the Kitsune, doubting very much that this was at all a good idea had agreed.

Suddenly Naruto's shoes connected with solid floor beneath him, he gave a little gasp, his feet almost forgetting what the ground felt like.

"Hey," he hissed up at Sasuke, "we've made it!"

The dark haired Uchiha made no answer, but leapt lightly to the floor with all the grace of a powerful big cat, Naruto could feel his haughty stare burning into the side of his face.

"So it would seem." He said with flat disinterest.

Naruto would have hit him, but the mood was all his fault anyway and besides that he didn't really want to start a fight hundreds of meters underground in almost complete darkness, so he restrained himself.

Pulling the night vision goggles over their eyes they looked about them only to find themselves standing in what seemed to be a huge underground cavern, it was so large is seemed almost unfathomable as if a huge deity had leaned out of the sky and scraped out a chunk of the earth with it's fingers. Konoha would have fitted happily inside it would having any danger of brushing the sides of the cavern or it's roof.

"I've never seen anything this big…" came Naruto's awed whisper as if he simply couldn't believe his eyes, "Sasuke over there, what are those huge oddly shaped stones?"

Sasuke frowned at Naruto in the dark, not knowing why Naruto's newfound amazement irked him so much, "They seem to be carvings." He said in the same bored flat voice he'd used earlier.

"Why…" Naruto asked slowly, moving across the huge floor of the cavern towards the huge stone statues, "why would there be carvings in a diamond mine?"

"There wouldn't," was Sasuke's automatic response, his hand reaching out to grab Naruto's shoulder and pulling him back, "there wouldn't be any statues. There would just be tunnels, like the ones on the maps we brought with us…this is obviously some place else."

Naruto's mouth was still open looking about him; there were carvings in the walls, odd strange symbols etched into the stone and surrounding them lined up against the walls were…

"Yokai…all pointing downwards…." Sasuke turned slowly on the spot, "each and every single one of them…"

He gave Naruto one of his rare non-plussed looks, "Are they pointing to something in the floor?"

"I have no idea." Naruto whispered back, it was eerie, all these statues at least a hundred of them with wide blank eyes and snarling mouths, inhumane and terrifying places all pointing at something, something they couldn't see.

"Do you think it's one of those places where they came to sacrifice people?" the blond hissed, he was standing close to Sasuke now, his back pressed against Sasuke's shoulder. His voice holding more confusion then it did fear, "Because it's as creepy as hell. I think these statues are warning us to get out, get out now or be eaten."

"No, you're wrong." the Uchiha said suddenly in a voice that startled Naruto into turning round to look at him, with the night vision goggles he could just about make out the line of Sasuke's mouth in his near perfect face, that line of severity and almost wonder.

"These statues were guarding something."

"How do you know?" Naruto asked, almost mystified with this abrupt statement, the cavern seemed to be pressing in and against them. All the way up the walls there was small holes like bats caves only much larger, in parts it was almost a honey combed structure like a bees nest. Naruto kept wondering if things were watching them from the darkness of those little gaping holes, watching them with hungry eyes and clicking jaws.

"Can't you feel it?"

"No."

"It got out." A different tone of voice this time, slightly remorseful, sad almost.

"How do you know that?"

Sasuke was glad for the darkness and the goggles on his face, they prevented Naruto from seeing the guilt in his eyes; instead he spoke again with half a shrug of his shoulders.

"I guess it's because they're all pointing to the same thing." And he lifted his hand to point in the same direction as the rest of the stone statues towards the perfectly round hole in the floor and heard Naruto let out a short stunned exclamation of breathe.

If they'd thought the climb down into the cavern was a long one it was nothing compared to the sucking cold depth that emanated from that hole, it was like an ancient dark power drawing them in, like a black hole that draws in gravity and even time. All around it was a rim of lead, ancient carvings dug into the side, elaborate symbols, strange words all making the hairs on the nape of Naruto's neck prickle to attention one by one. It looked as if it had been sealed a long, long time ago and then the seal had been broken, a lead lid lay a few meters away at least an arm and a half thick an massive in diameter. It lay broken, three perfect pieces lying in the dust. But the unlike the rim of the lid, the sides of the broken pieces were fresh; a light layer of dust coating the broken sides, whatever had broken out had done it recently.

Naruto shook his head…this was wrong…this was all wrong!

They_shouldn't_ be here.

Sasuke took off his backpack setting it on the ground beneath their feet and digging around inside it until he pulled out a flare, then he lit it, raising it above his head ready to drop it.

"What the hell do you think are you doing?" snapped Naruto, flung back suddenly into his senses after being over powered by the ominous aura of the hole.

"Well, we might as well see how deep this thing is, seeing as we came all the way here."

Then before Naruto could stop him he dropped it.

It seemed to fall forever, that brilliant red light. Illuminating the smooth sides of the tunnel as it fell until it became smaller and smaller…and then there was a red ripple of light underneath it and_'splash'_ it was gone.

"Hm, an underground river. Maybe it's poisoned, that's why the people who made this built all the statues, they're warning people not to go swimming down there."

Naruto felt himself shiver, "Don't make fun of it Sasuke, this place is just brimming with something horrible, something like death only alive and walking-"

"Do you believe you demons Naruto?"

That question caught him off guard, it seemed an odd thing to say…it seemed almost calculated in fact, around them some of the rocks seemed to shimmer slightly and Naruto found himself remembering the peculiar but ethereal glow of the natural phosphorescence found in some rocks underground.

"What kind of demons?"

"The wicked ones that carry you away in your sleep, the ones that whisper temptation in your ears. The ones that turn your best friend against you in a merciless fight to the death."

"Sasuke," Naruto said slowly, walking round the rim of the hole careful not to look into it…not into that power that was sucking them down, "Sasuke we're going. It was a mistake coming down here by ourselves. Whatever it is we should just leave it the hell alone until the others can-"

"Do you think I should jump?"

Naruto stopped so quickly he almost fell over; Sasuke had removed the night vision goggles from his face and was looking at him with that same amount of burning intensity he'd used on Naruto last night. How he could see was a mystery to Naruto, but then Sasuke had the Uchiha's powerful and sensitive eyes, and that stubbornness to do exactly as he saw fit.

"If you jump Sasuke," Naruto felt his words sticking to the roof of his mouth and sliding uncomfortably across his palate, "I'll jump right after you."

The Uchiha gave him an infinitely sad smile, "I should jump Naruto, if I jump down there maybe this will all be over, this debt will be repaid and you can all go on with your happy little lives. Free forever Naruto, just think how happy you'd be with Sakura."

"Stop it!" Naruto found himself shouting, kicking Sasuke's backpack ten meters way from them in a physical outburst of rage and yanking Sasuke forwards by his collar, "Don't you dare say anything like that ever again, or I'll kill you myself! How are you helping by jumping down a huge hole? You're mad, it's this place, and I'm not going to let you!"

"I think some people might call it justice."

"_I-don't-care-what-other-people-think_." Naruto snarled, accentuating each word carefully before moving onto the next.

"What matters is what I think, and I'm telling you Sasuke that-"

But he interrupted, pulling Naruto's fingers from the front of his collar unplucking them one by one and bending them to his will, "When I told you last night that I'd kill for you I also meant that I'd die for you."

"Sasuke," Naruto said with pretend calmness, "if you're going to tell me you allowed me to come down here just to bear witness to your very dramatic death scene I'm afraid you're highly mistaken._ We-are-leaving_."

"You didn't let me tell you what I wanted to tell you last night."

"I think it's better that some things are left unspoken, don't you think?"

"Just because something's unsaid, doesn't change it."

Naruto shook his head, blond hair in scraggy disarray around his forehead he turned round to pick up Sasuke's backpack saying, "Stop playing games Sasuke, this isn't funny."

But when he looked at the place where Sasuke's backpack had been he realized it was gone, and in its place was something far more ominous.

"_**Shit!**_" he expelled, stumbling backwards in panic against Sasuke, careful not to blink, careful not to move, careful not to look away.

Stooping over the backpack, it's horrible, grotesque leering face twisted into a terrible snarl was one of the creatures he'd met back on that fateful night in Konoha. It moved only when you weren't looking at it, frozen in time until you blinked, or looked away for less than a second and the speed at which it moved at in that one moment was horrifying.

He heard Sasuke wheel round to look at it to, "Naruto get the bag!" he said urgently, his gaze not moving from the creature's petrified state, "I'll keep looking at it with you, keep calm and for god sakes don't let it touch you!"

Naruto edged forwards, his boots sending up a fine cloud of dust into the air that made his eyes water, the urge to blink was overwhelming but he couldn't let himself do it. The creature's frozen face looking at him through the darkness, fangs drawn back, hungry, waiting to pounce.

"Sasuke are there more? There could be more down here, _shit_ they could be everywhere and we wouldn't have noticed because they sit as still as the statues!" The sudden thought of them surrounded by these immobile demons filled his head and he fought down the urge to vomit in his panic. They'd never survive that.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw something.

"Sasuke!" he yelled wheeling round, "There's one behind you! Look out!"

Perhaps for less than a second that both Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes were off the motionless demon they'd previously been looking at. As Sasuke turned round to face the one behind him, the flickering wheeling lights of the chidori in his hand dread and terror gushed through Naruto like a wave as he threw himself to the floor and looked back over his shoulder at the demon in front of him.

Now was nose to nose with him exactly over him, if he'd looked away for a fraction of a second longer he would have been dead. Its claws had contracted, hands drawn back leaning over him in a position that was ready to spring and slay him in an instant.

Shivering, shaking, gulping his heart back down his throat he heard a distant explosion behind him, and Naruto wriggled on his back to Sasuke's backpack, never once taking his eyes away from the thing in front of him.

There was a shuffle of footsteps and another dull bang, the demon before him exploded in a cloud of thick dust and rubble, and Sasuke stood there breath heavily, dirt mixed with sweat across his face as the lightening squeaks of the chidori bubbled away into nothingness in his palm.

"Come on," he muttered, hauling Naruto to his feet, "we have to go_now_."

For once Naruto didn't argue, they turned and ran towards where they had come in only to find it…

"It's blocked!" Naruto yelled, the darkness seemed so close all around them, from all sides he could see the shapes of more motionless demons standing there watching them, ready to move closer. The base of Sasuke's skull against the back of Naruto's head as they stood back to back with each other, trying to look in all directions at once. But they couldn't look everywhere at once; from time to time demons kept slipping through, coming closer, like watching something through a slow motion camera. Creeping up, slowly, so slowly but you could see it coming every step of the way.

"They must have expected us to come down here!" Sasuke told him, even in a crisis piecing the coherent snippets of knowledge together.

"That's nice, very nice," Naruto snarled back at him, lunging forwards to smash his Rasengan through the closest one's head, "but what the hell do we do now genius?"

"We can't get back out the way we came in." There was another muffled bang and a cloud of dust that for an instant made the demons hard to see, three came forward this time, two close enough to spit on, one with it's teeth drawn back as if it was about to bite.

"And there are too many to do this for much longer."

"What?" Naruto could already feel himself breaking out in a sweat, these demons required a huge amount of chakra in order to destroy them and he couldn't fend them off by himself, he didn't have enough eyes.

"So we just die here Sasuke? Is that what you're saying?"

"No," Sasuke grunted lunging forwards himself and destroying two with the same hand, "I suggest we jump."

Naruto would have howled: 'Are you mad?' at him, had Sasuke not grabbed his hand at that particular moment and dragged him forwards, the dust spiralled in all directions and Naruto looking back over his shoulder saw them following as if someone had pressed a flickering light to his eyes and only allowed him to see half of their staggering run. They lunged after them; arms forwards, claws extended, eyes blank and mouths open screaming rage.

Sasuke stopped by the rim of the hole; Naruto wobbled his balance unsteady almost falling in. Down…far far below them they could hear the rushing water as it gurgled through the mountain in pitch-blackness beneath them.

"Do you think this is a good idea?" Was the blond's shaky and breathless question as he pressed himself up against Sasuke and looked down that sheer drop.

"Nope."

"Do we have a choice?"

Sasuke gave a quick glance over his shoulder at the oncoming hoard behind them, "Not really." He answered almost with half a smile, there was something in his expression as if part of him were alive with excitement.

In the darkness Naruto found his hand, "On three?"

"On three."

"One,"

The creatures were almost upon them now; the ground seemed to lurch beneath them the water rumbling far down below them like an angry monster.

"Two,"

Stone hands reaching for them, stone claws with serrated edges, stone teeth wide with anticipation, Naruto was leaning backwards into Sasuke, his heart pounding so fast it felt as if it was going to burst.

"_**THREE!**_"

Without knowing where it lead or what they were getting themselves into they both turned and jumped, falling in the black whistling wind down, down, down, into what felt like hell.

* * *

**A/N 2**: And if you want to know what happens to Kiba...well lets just say I might have some free time on Sunday night to write it up, but it really rather depends on whether or not you'd like me to update faster. :'D (cough review guys, cough review) 

Review if you please and I'll see what I can do.

Here is some more beautiful fanart by Erica: acaciabrown(dot)livejournal(dot)com/14038(dot)html

Please drop a comment on there because I am desperately trying to encourage her to draw more (I think she undervalues herself somewhat!).

Also, big thank you to everyone who has recc'd Fish Bird and written their thoughts about it on blogs, profiles and websites. Thanks guys, it's really unexpected and kind of wonderful to stumble across what you guys think of Fish Bird...I get a bit emotional actually (laughs) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS!


	16. Nietzsche

Fish Bird (魚鳥）

By The Eternity Dragon

Chapter 16: Nietzsche

**Disclaimer:** I don't even want to talk about the manga right now, okay? **ENOUGH OF JIRAIYA AND HIS PORCUPINE AFRO!**

**A/N**: This chapter is dedicated to **Katie** because she is awesome and congratulations for graduating! Also, please do not work yourself to death next year or fall down any ancient tombs like Indiana Jones on your digs…but knowing you, you'd probably quite enjoy that.

Unbeta'd: I wanted to post this before the weekend was over, so I'll be re-posting the beta'd version when I receive it.

* * *

The rocks were slippery; Sasuke thought as he lay there, spat up by the currents of dark gushing water all around him. His breathing was harsh and irregular as his body pressed down against his ribcage and chest, arms folded underneath his head listening to the steady roar and tumble of the dark foaming waters just behind him. 

He was alone.

There wasn't much room for coherent though inside of Sasuke's head at that exact moment, it being was swallowed up by the tumble of panic that was colliding against his skull as he lay there trying to swallow it all down like day old bile.

He was trying to remember, remember exactly in the horrible gush and swirl of currents when he'd let go of Naruto when they'd…lost each other.

Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, _Naruto-Naruto-Naruto-__**Naruto**_ …**fuck! **

He could be dead for all Sasuke knew, could be lying somewhere _dead_ and it would all be his fault. Morbid haunting images swimming to mind of his Naruto lying right at the bottom of an underground lake. Bubbles of memories from Valley of the End started wriggling into his conscious thought, images of himself trying to kill Naruto, and Naruto just looking at him, letting him…. allowing himself to die.

After they'd jumped his memory had turned into a colourful contusion of foggy blurs, the water had been too cold for him even to think in, and the rapids had dragged them apart, smashing them against rocks and plunging them under. And somewhere, somewhere in those dark and treacherous waters he had lost Naruto.

Sasuke shook his head as if to disrupt his chain of thoughts, and moving his hips, moving his legs, clenching his hands, anything to move.

Don't just lie there, his mind screamed, _get up!_

Naruto was fine, he was still alive somewhere, breathing and thinking idiotic thoughts like he always did about Ramen, sunshine, kittens and how everyone could get along in this world. That's how it was, so there was no use for Sasuke to panic about something he couldn't resolve.

Sasuke pushed himself up onto his knees; he was dripping with water from head to foot, shivering in the dark whilst the steady throb, throb, in his chest told him that he was too far away from Naruto's body dead or alive to be comfortable with.

As Sasuke stood up the pain became significantly worse, he screwed up his face and bit down on his tongue, staggering backwards into a rock face, fingers behind him clutching at the slippery surface and trying to find a grip hold on it.

If he kept moving forwards he'd most likely collapse and if he stayed something might find him and decide to have him for lunch. He gave a hissing laugh, his hands fingering the rock face in the pure darkness, fingertips dreading the feeling of finding something warm and mouldy like the decaying skin of some putrid underground creature with sharp needle like teeth in it's crooked jaws waiting for him to stumble upon him and strip the meat from his bones.

Sasuke snarled, forcing chakra down into his right hand so he could hold it there in a small luminescent blue ball, raising his arm over his head to took a look around him, the light in a soft blue circle around him. Stalactites and Stalagmites rose up and out of the rocks like small mountains bubbling with moisture that dripped icily onto the glistening black rock, others like thin pale needles, behind him the black depths of the underground river rushed past the little inlet of rock, the water kept running on and on through an endless tunnel of sculpted limestone, undulating, dipping and turning as it ran through the mountain. Sasuke felt the twinge of pain in his chest again, as though someone had reached into his ribcage and was squeezing his heart very tightly in a gnarled old fist.

The towering columns before him lead backwards, the sloping rock faces giving way to an archway and a sloping tunnel. Sasuke hesitated for a moment, his common sense telling him that walking blindly down a dark enclosed space with little manoeuvre room was a bad idea, especially when there were things running around attacking people. He glanced quickly back over his shoulder again, at the rippling ribbons of frothing water as they slapped and sloshed against the high rocks of the bank he was standing on. Well it was either that, he thought, or go for another swim. Inwardly he shuddered, and knew it simply wasn't an option. He didn't have enough chakra to maintain normal body temperature and any longer than ten minutes he'd be a dead man for sure and that wouldn't be helping anyone, least of all Naruto not that a little thing like death was going to deter the blond.

Knowing Naruto in fact he'd probably chase Sasuke all the way down to the underworld if he had to, Sasuke couldn't help the smile that swept briefly across his lips like a flicker of light before it was extinguished by the mission at hand.

He squared his shoulders and took the plunge in, forcing more chakra into his hand and keeping it there, hovering slowly just above his skin, ethereal blue light bouncing from rock to rock and creating long wobbling shadows that crept helter-skelter up the walls.

He walked for what seemed an eternity, the walls pressing in against his shoulders and the roof sloping down, so low that at some points he had to get on his knees and crawl.

There were moments then, as he pushed himself through holes that kept his arms pinned to his sides and forcing him to move forwards purely by the strength of his abdomen, when he considered the fact that perhaps the river hadn't been such a bad idea in the first place. Sharp unrelenting edges of the mountain rock scraped and tore at his skin and the ever-pressing darkness all around him as he maintained the little ball of charka in his hand. It was amazing that he hadn't come upon anything yet, he felt like he had been there for hours, days, weeks even. And yet it could only have been and hour and a half, perhaps two.

But he was already forgetting the warm kisses of sunshine against his skin, and the want of a cool wind was maddening. The air was so still so stagnant; he slipped one filth-covered hand beneath the collar of his shirt, pulling the sweat-drenched material away from his skin. He coughed once, into the back of his hand, his feet careful not to slip down the steep slope, the tunnel had tapered off into a massive area which must have been somewhere in the middle of the mountain. Some strange place, where all the walls ascended into a high ceiling and long crooked tunnels branched off in all directions. Sasuke stood, his arm still over his head, and his heart yammering away inside his chest.

Oh god, he was so lost now.

This was no place he'd ever seen on the map, this huge catacomb that was drenched with dust and antiquity, this was something older than the diamond caves, deeper than the miners had ever gone, deeper even than the enemy and the soldiers had ever gone in the time of war. Sasuke felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle and shook off the feeling that he was being watched.

He wondered if he could chance it, and squatting down drew lines on the dusty floor, let the ball of chakra in his hand burn down to a few sizzling sparks and slammed his hand defiantly into the ground.

A small snake lay underneath it, brown, it's flat triangular head decorated with yellowing scales creating a mottled diamond effect.

"Go find which direction Naruto is in." Sasuke muttered and half hissed, inside he felt a warm glow of pleasure as he realized his chakra control was slowly coming back to him, although he still didn't have the way with animals that he knew Naruto to have.

Even _if_ the idiot summoned toads.

The snake obeyed him, but not without a contemptuous look, it uncoiled itself, winding it's way between his feet and then slithering off into the darkness. The dry scratch of it's scales against the rock was soon lost to the pressing silence and Sasuke, backing up into a huge wall behind him sat down, hand cupped in front of him, bluish white light illuminating his face as he began to wait.

Despite himself his eyes closed, and he felt his head nodding forwards, hair slipping down the sides of his face as clouds of sleep drifted in tendrils about his mind. It was like being smothered, Sasuke thought dimly, shaking himself and even pinching himself to stay awake. His limbs were exhausted, and his mind screamed for rest. He should stand up in a moment…he should walk around, exercise, and fight off the drowsiness…

* * *

Sasuke was awoken by something slithering against his neck; he awoke with a start, the beginnings of a small cry quietened by something hissing in his ear, a warm flickering tongue by his earlobe and the low hiss "Found him." 

Sasuke willed his heart back down his throat again, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, "Great," he murmured, "which way."

"No," the snake told him, not with a hiss but with a clench of its body, it slipped under the collar of his shirt, winding it's way against his body heat. It lay across his collarbone and surged a little up the side of his neck.

"Something's here." It said, an informal wiggle, an undulation of the middle section.

"It's been watching you."

Sasuke's heart stopped, then it flipped and he felt as if the bottom of his stomach had been ripped open.

He stood up, and felt the snake coil protectively about his neck, it's flat diamond shaped head pressed between his shoulder blades. Sasuke paid it no heed, his weapons pouch was strapped to his hip and as his fingers dipped smoothly for a weapon he prayed that the river had not stolen them all away from him. He was in luck, he gripped the Kunai carefully in his left hand and held his right above his head, back still to the wall pushing the light into the darkness as far as it would go. He wished for a long katana, a sharp and deadly blade that he'd learnt to wield under Orochimaru's guidance. But the Katana was in the backpack that was either with Naruto or lost forever to the river, it was too late to regret now, he'd played the card and this was his hand, he needed to swap his two of spades for the ace. The trouble was, how to find it.

"I know you're there." He said into nothing, not knowing what to expect but projecting like he did, like he had all the confidence in the world and knew exactly how to extricate himself from this situation. Like he didn't think he was about to die…die the way Itachi had, screaming and in agony.

They materialized then, out of the darkness as if they'd been made of smoke, hundreds of them, hissing and reverberating jaws, heads without eyes encased in smooth black shells, horrible, contorted bodies, sleek and oily. Nails clacked against the rock floor, scraping and carving out little riddles of limestone, basalt, marble, slate, whatever it was that this horrible place was made out of. More ancient than time it seemed to Sasuke.

Shit, thought Sasuke as he felt the base of his spine touch the cold wall behind him, there was no way out of this, he was going to die before he could set anything right. He was going to die an undignified, bloody death because he'd been stupid enough to-to well it didn't matter now with his heart hammering away in his chest. One of the things tilted its sightless head at him, watching the movements of the kunai. Was it watching him? How could it when it didn't have any eyes? Chakra detectors maybe? That would explain why it was focusing on his arms, perhaps if he...but the rest of them. They'd be sure to smell him, or hear him, or sense him.

His blood roared in his veins and the thump, thump of his heart in his ears was all he could hear, he could see one of the things tensing, preparing to leap. The snake reared up behind him and bit him painfully on the back of the neck; it's teeth sinking into his flesh "No!" it was screaming, "Not them, _not them!__**You're not paying attention!**_"

"Are you enjoying yourself?" a calm quiet chilling voice said slowly, it sounded vaguely amused, the creatures vanished as quickly as they had come dissolving into columns of what seemed to be soot moving away as if blown by a strong wind from Sasuke and back into the darkness again.

"Is Hell all that you expected it to be?"

The snake withdrew from his neck, its fangs receding as it slithered beneath his clothes out of sight and out of mind again, a low warning note of "_Danger. Careful. Already dead._" At least he thought that was what it said, but his attention was focused forwards to the source of the noise.

"This isn't Hell," he said in barely above a whisper, "this isn't hell because Itachi would be here if it was."

"Ah, yes." the voice said again, weaving closer this time, just out of the light, a small form in the darkness and the shuffling of skin over rock.

"Your dear brother, did you like the way I killed him Sasuke?"

Sasuke Uchiha missed a breath and had to gasp to retrieve it again, his insides felt lucid, his brain foggy and the hand holding the kunai shook but he let none of it through in the timbre of his voice.

"So it's you."

His voice was strong, perfectly at ease, assure of itself, unlike the rest of him.

It laughed at him, a sound like metal tumbling down a mountainside, it clicked and jarred, wholly unnatural as it reverberated all across the cavern scattered with catacombs.

"I said, didn't you like the way I killed your brother for you? Killed all of them…?"

Sasuke licked his lips, "I only asked you to kill my brother." Was his slow reply, "The rest of them…you didn't need to-"

"Lies!" the voice hissed, it weaved closer again and Sasuke caught the glimmer of eyes, in the darkness staring intently at him and the wet sound of a tongue against teeth.

"They all deserved to die, each and every single one of them, that land was drenched in misery, slavery, disease, blood-"

"Well it was after you'd been there!" Sasuke snarled, not the best of diplomatic responses and he cursed himself the second the words had left his lips, stupid thing to say.

That's right, **incense** it!

That's exactly what you should do! Invite it to rip you limb from limb! Brilliant, it was a brilliant master plan!

But the voice just laughed, and now Sasuke could see the flash of teeth in the darkness, white grinning teeth beneath the glimmering dark wide eyes and felt the glob of blood on his neck cool and collect.

"Does the _Great-Sasuke-Uchiha_ not like it? Does he wish that I had spared their lives and bought his brother begging to his feet? Shall I raise him from the Yomi, Sasuke? Shall his soul come walking before you, so you can lay witness to the agony he endures in the afterlife?"

"_That's enough!_" and suddenly everything stilled until the only things Sasuke could hear was his own erratic breathing and the small pulsing of the snake's heart in it's belly pressed against his back.

The eyes blinked, and the smile vanished, but it continued to stare at him, a thirsty look in its expression now, yearning for something Sasuke could give it.

"What," the words seemed reluctant to become unstuck from his throat, "what are you doing here?"

"This is my home."

Sasuke let out a hollow bark of a laugh, "No, no it's not. Your home was miles and miles away from here. I found you that time I was wondering, at the back of that cave with the seals engraved all over it. You were like a corpse, some small insignificant thing that I let loose and never thought of again. You were tiny…weak even."

"But you fed me, gave me life…"

Unconsciously Sasuke's fingers ran over the small oval nubs in his wrists, the cold material that no longer hurt or throbbed or stopped his chakra flow to his arms. The one in the centre of his chest, just beneath his collarbone, that still hurt, coldly glinting and stealing his chakra.

"You took it, you _stole_ it!" Sasuke argued like a child finding himself still indignant and still defiant, fighting down the horrid sickening feeling in his stomach.

"You said you were willing to do anything to see Itachi dead, I did what was necessary."

Sasuke spread his arms wide, "This? This is necessary? This was never part of the-"

"The deals over, Sasuke." It moved forwards, and the outline of a face could be seen, just, in the pale blue light.

"This is retribution against the long imprisonment, against the agony. There will be blood, and more blood, everyday a thousand shall die in penance for it."

He tried a different tact this time, more information was needed, more knowledge more motives, not just a shadowy promise and a half contract.

"What have you done, why are you different? Last time I was speaking to a spirit…a ghost even. You're different, you're flesh and blood this time. You're a person, or at least you grew into one."

The voice laughed again, and then it came closer into the light, tall and slender dark straight hair down a slim back over a tiny waist, fanning out in all directions like that of a drowned person. Impossibly pale skin, almost translucent stretched over features like that of a china doll, small pouting mouth with plump lips and wide staring eyes, the irises of which changed colour slowly in the glow of the light. From pitch black to deep green, then back again as if the colours were slowly being mixed round in a cooking pot.

She looked about eighteen years old, no younger, sixteen maybe, slim ankles, tiny feet, small hands, wearing a shapeless dress of white, or what had once been white, smeared now with dirt, soil and dust. She looked dead, and yet alive like a puppet on a string, she moved, blinked, stared at Sasuke and licked her lips hungrily. Her mouth opening to reveal a multitude of perfect teeth, like a cluster of white pearls around a slab of red coral.

"It's not my body," it said-she said slinky, "I found her wandering about the mountain tops three months ago, and I've been in her ever since." Her smile widened and grew like one would imagine a lion or a bird of prey to do just before it strikes.

"Do you like it, Sasuke-kun?" It wasn't said like a question, it was spoken like a demand, a demand of something ancient and cruel with a hint of deadly flirtation.

Sasuke decided that his best course of action was to ignore it completely, "I want you to stop." He said firmly, all the hairs on his body it felt were standing to attention under the look she gave him, "You've had your fun, now stop."

"Or what?" she was looking at him playfully now, a head shorter than him, skinny, her bare feet firmly planted against the ground. It was the widening of her eyes that made her look inhuman, mad even.

"What will you do that will stop me from taking my revenge on the nations that imprisoned me in stone?"

"I'll kill you." It felt stupid to say, weak even, but he had nothing else to give and as her laughter rang out high, like the shattering of glass he grit his teeth and willed himself to say firm.

"I'm not mortal enough to kill you fool." she hissed, one hand snaking out and gripping the hand with which Sasuke was holding the kunai. He struck out subconsciously, limbs in a fluid motion which only training could have taught him. The kunai went straight into the palm of her small pale hand, and stuck there. Then it withered and melted into a hissing stinking puddle on the cavern floor, Sasuke's eyes watched the dark red wound on her hand heal as if it had never existed.

**Fuck**, he was in deep water now.

"But I'm impressed," Sasuke's eyes flicked up to meet hers, "I am impressed you made it this far Sasuke. Perhaps I'll let you live and witness the end of the world with me, perhaps I'll let you watch as hundreds of those things you just saw overrun your homeland and destroy everything you ever held dear."

Her smile became coy now, "Poor Sasuke, you're always alone. Always because that's the way you will always be, your brother cursed you in it and now you can't get rid of it. You understand don't you, understand what it's like to be the last one, to be away from the rest of them."

Sasuke had no idea what _'the rest of them'_ was supposed to mean, but he did realize with a jolt to his stomach that she-it was standing closer to him than ever before.

"What would you give me," she said so softly that even in the silence he could hardly hear her, "what would you give me to make me stop?"

His tongue felt dry and utterly useless in his mouth, "I already set you free and gave you life, what more do you want from me?"

The words spiralled for a moment, before falling into darkness; her mouth was still partially open. That mad look of unkempt desire on her face, or thirst and hunger and so many other things that Sasuke didn't want to think about.

"Come back," she said, withdrawing slowly, sure vulpine smile, sultry movements and a swish of her long dark hair.

"Come back when you have a better offer for me."

"_**No, no!**_" Sasuke shouted, darting forwards realising that this golden opportunity was slipping through his fingers as he watched it.

The chance to set things right, to make sure no one else was killed because of his stupid mistake.

"What do you want from me?"

But it was no good, as she had come, she had gone again and Sasuke was left talking to darkness and the ever listening rocks all around him, apart from the snake which slithered across his neck once more, winding itself around his arm to test that the air was safe again.

For a moment Sasuke closed his eyes and let misery and defeat overtake him, he let agony pluck at his insides and tear himself to pieces. He let anger and denial rage in his chest until it threatened to burst out of him in a scream of anguish. Then he bent down and let the snake slide from his fingertips and onto the floor.

"Take me to Naruto." He said quietly, and followed its undulating trail out of the catacombs.

* * *

Naruto couldn't come up for air…. drown…drown…he was going to drown. 

He could already feel the cold white fingers of death clawing at his hair and stroking the skin of his face. The river was pushing him somewhere with a gush and a roar of anger, bubbling at his sides and forcing him down the cavernous tunnels it had created, throwing him at breakneck speeds through the mountain. He could feel himself shivering as he ran his hands along the tunnel wall fumbling for a grip, the walls too slippery and too wet to allow him to stick to them. The water itself like a winter tundra as he pumped chakra through his system trying to keep himself warm.

Trouble was there wasn't much to spare.

When he was smashed against the rock not some five minutes ago-or at least he thought it was five minutes ago, it could have been an hour or a day even. Time didn't seem to pass down here in the endless darkness, he thought he heard something crack and then the blinding pain in his right leg began. Perhaps it was broken, but it was impossible to tell in the dark, the cold had knocked him senseless and despite the streams of chakra running through his system it didn't seem enough to keep him warm at all, but he had seemed to have gone past the point of feeling cold, sometime ago in fact. He couldn't feel anything below his waist anymore.

Naruto's eyes closed unwillingly and felt both his hands scrape and slide against the wall as he was rushed past the smooth undulating rock.

He shouldn't sleep with water rushing all around him, but he just couldn't keep his eyes open. The flow all about his body kept flickering, as more and more heat escaped and he became colder and colder. Just one second, one moment of shuteye wouldn't hurt anyone… he kept slipping lower and lower into the water, under and under until at last he was submerged altogether.

Two feet below the surface, the red blood cells in his body screaming, adrenaline flooding his system in a crushing wave of panic, air streaming in unseen silver bubbles that shimmered and scampered towards an unseen surface the clock ticked and precious seconds rushed past…had Naruto not been swept over the side of the waterfall the Kyuubi would have woken up and all hell would have been let loose.

Naruto hadn't seen the waterfall with its drop (a good fifty meters or so) coming, but then again, how could he have done? Alone, surrounded by darkness with the onset of probably hypothermia gnawing at his body, he suddenly broke surface when he realised he was falling through the air into an unknown depth. He yelled, or screamed one of the two it was hard to tell when your throat felt s if it was on fire. But had the sense to brace his hands over his head to lessen the impact on his skull as his body sliced through the top layer of the water and he was pushed far under into swirling depths beneath the roaring waterfall.

He came up again ejecting an adequate amount of icy water out of his lungs and coughing and spluttering so his stomach heaved and he felt light headed and dizzy. Slowly he dragged his body up to the bank and like a sodden shoe lay across the rocks by the brink, listening to the thunder of the waterfall and feeling the light spray of water on his face like rain. Tapping into some of the Kyuubi's energy Naruto began to dry off his sodden clothes and warm the rest of his body up, slowly restoring sensation to his nether regions, with a sigh of relief he was able to feel his left leg again, it was when the right leg began to regain feeling that he sincerely wished it had remained blissfully numb instead.

Whatever Naruto had done to it was painful and something his immune system was obviously unable to correct, even as he lay there he could feel his skin regenerating, his bones scraped, bruised or fractured mending nicely into place. But his knee, oh god _what_ was wrong with his knee? It throbbed with white-hot pain that surged down in waves. He could move his toes; rotate his ankle, but go up slightly and sit in the middle…. it was just agony!

Naruto grit his teeth, swearing and cussing as he moved himself up the bank on his elbows. This was fucking great, just _fucking great_. What the hell had he done to his leg? What the hell was he doing down here? Where the hell was Sasuke? Was he alive, was he dead, had he been eaten? Oh god, had he been eaten? What if he himself, Naruto was going to be eaten? What would happen to Shikamaru and Kiba if he died? What would happen to all of them? What if he never found Sakura again? What if…what if she was already dead!

**No!**

He bit down on his bottom lip and drew a small amount of blood from it, (it was fast becoming a bad habit of his). Naruto knew that thoughts like that weren't going to get him anywhere, one step at a time and then he'd see what to do about Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Kiba and all the rest of the world for that manner.

He pushed himself up on his elbows and began to slowly wriggle backwards, he needed to find something to prop himself up with, something to make a splint with and then consider his options from there. For somewhere behind him he heard a sudden tumble of rocks.

Naruto stopped suddenly, shallow breathing, adrenaline pumping upwards and spiralling downwards. Through the haze of chakra swimming fluidly about him he could feel something 'other' moving slowly towards him from behind, distantly, like a feather light tickle on the back of his neck. Something that made the fine hairs on the skin of his body stand up one by one, his breathing seemed to still, he didn't want to turn round and look but now he was sure he could hear something. A quiet click of claw against the wet surface of a stone, the crunches of body weight against the ground, and the low menacing hiss as a jaw slid widely open ready to strike and ingest.

Naruto couldn't turn round; he sat frozen to the spot as something leered over him in the dark, stretching huge and wide bearing down on him. He pushed around in his insides begging the Kyuubi to stir but nothing happened, subdued by either the cold or the pain, or maybe even both, Naruto's pleas faded into nothing. The Kyuubi either couldn't hear him, or just ignored him. Sleeping behind the bars of its iron cage, unaware of their plight.

Something lunged at him as Naruto threw himself forwards with a yell; pebbles and rocks went flying in all directions as something came bearing down at him all talons and claws.

"No!" Naruto heard himself hollering back with a hoarse voice that ripped at the back of his throat, "Get away!"

He didn't have enough feeling in his hand to control his Rasengan properly; it spiralled out of control indenting the rock and sending him skidding across a slimy rock face, slipping slowly and steadily back towards the water again. But something grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him roughly backwards, Naruto twisted round and lashed out, half furious, half panic stricken as he felt himself pinned down on his back looking upwards and feeling something looking down on him.

He wondered grimly if it would eat him alive or kill him first.

"I did not come this far to be something's lunch!" he yelled, arms by his sides, useless, defeated…._ prey_.

The thing open opened its jaws wide; Naruto couldn't see it, so much as sense it doing just that above him. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the impact, but the lunge and hiss of jaws was never felt. Instead there was a sound like a whirlwind and the world exploded as someone or something went and collided with the creature's side. The rocks leapt in the air and a fine silt was sent tumbling into Naruto's lungs.

Dim light flooded the area, which seared against Naruto's pupils burning into his cornea.

The blond felt his body pushed backwards by the impact and lay on his back, still in agony wondering what the hell was going on.

"Don't you think you over did it a bit?" someone asked sarcastically, it came from the direction of the light, Naruto knew that much. Obviously the light was speaking to another person in the room…oh wait no. That couldn't be right.

"Why don't you shut up and do something useful for once!" another voice bit back, Naruto still couldn't see anything much, just shapes and blurs and could hear disembodied voices that seemed having an argument with each other.

"I am being useful," the light voice retorted with all the airs of being unconcerned, "just because you've got a bad case of PMs does not mean that you can take it out on me."

The other voice growled in response.

A noise approached Naruto's body and he instinctively placed both of his arms over his head, fingers clenched and ridged, elbows locked prepared for the worst.

"Are you alive?" the voice asked, Naruto didn't move, he couldn't, his heart was pounding too fiercely in his chest for him to do anything but lie there and watch the spinning images go dancing before his eyes.

The voice with the light made a small indistinct noise, which sounded suspiciously like an irritated cough, and kicked Naruto experimentally in the side.

It happened to unfortunately be the side with the injured leg, and the kick sent spasms of pain right through the entirety of Naruto's body, from beneath his arms he let out a muffled yell whilst gritting his teeth.

"Stop that you bastard, can't you see you're making it worse!" the other disembodied voice snapped and Naruto found someone plucking his arms away from his face with cool stern but gentle fingers and himself looking up into the face of…

The face of….

"Sakura?" he said slowly, quite unable to believe that a disembodied voice could look so much like his Sakura, her pink hair tied back and dirty. Her skin, her mouth, her green eyes, her eyebrows, her smell, her fingers…her hands pulling him to sit up. Her green eyes so wide, her lips open trying to form words, but like him utterly confused and speechless as each other.

"Naruto?" she said gently, softly, as if she though if she spoke too loudly he might disappear.

"Fuck this," Naruto muttered shaking his head as if his mind was about to come loose and slip straight out of his ears.

"I've died haven't I?"

After that everything collapsed into solid blackness, his brain finally screaming enough, hell murder and gunfire.

He passed out, tumbling backwards into the rocks, slamming the back of his skull hard against something both hard and wet.

Dimly as the membrane of reality slid further and further away he thought he heard Sai ask Sakura in melodramatic tones if she had killed him.

* * *

Neji hadn't seen or heard from Kiba in over an hour, in fact at the back of his head he could feel the beginnings of worry settling over his brain like a thick misty fog. He was fifteen minutes late for the rendezvous point, and although the Inuzuka was sloppy he wasn't deficient and the knowledge of this not only irked Neji who liked to pretend that the youngest member of the Inuzuka clan was far below his station but also made him feel slightly uneasy. 

Neji didn't like Kiba it was true; although it wasn't so much that he didn't like Kiba, more that he detested him on principle. Kiba had feelings for Hinata, strong feelings at that, which he expressed in the long soft looks he sometimes gave her, the protective way he'd sling his hand over her shoulder, or the odd considerate things he'd do just because his gut feeling told him it would make her smile. Hinata didn't push Kiba away, neither did she encourage him, and despite however hard Neji tried he couldn't get her to relax round him the way she relaxed around Kiba. He cared about Hinata, it wasn't his fault he couldn't express it in the same way Kiba could. Kiba could laugh, put his hands behind his head and make it feel like the whole world was ready to laugh with him. When he got in a fight with Shikamaru, Naruto, Shino, Choji or even Lee his temper sizzled, sparked and then burnt out. It had never been like that for Neji, for him things bubbled away under the skin, bottled up until the festering explosion of hate threatened to consume him from the inside out.

Hinata knew, more than anyone else how hurt Neji was on the inside perhaps it was her natural caring instinct that made her stay with him, even when Neji was sometimes accidentally horrible to her. He never meant to be, he'd snap and snarl at her in a bad mood and watch her shrink back from him. Her mouth a straight line and her face peculiarly blank, dark long thick hair trailing across her face like a curtain, upset because she couldn't make him better. He never seemed to apologize in the right way either, the words would stick in his throat and he'd feel like he was swallowing bricks, until he either gave up altogether or told her that if she wanted to leave he wouldn't blame her.

Hinata was sweet, Hinata was pure, she'd shake her head and let him hold her in his arms and kiss her pale, pale skin, push her down onto the bed and lie quietly beneath him until he had satisfied himself. It wasn't passionate love, she didn't come with a cry or a scream, but sometimes a short brisk '_Ah_' or other times shut her eyes and bite her bottom lip until it was over. Then waiting for Neji to roll off her so she could go into the bathroom to clean up. That was another thing that perplexed him, he didn't know if she didn't like him touching her, she certainly never refused him or objected but she never initiated something herself, and sometimes when he pushed her harder then he did normally, searching for a reaction to tell him whether or not she liked it, liked _him_, she'd stiffen up and an awkwardness would settle that would stretch into days.

He wondered sometimes why she had said yes to his proposal of marriage in the first place, he'd caught her occasionally sitting in the window of her small apartment over looking the street waiting patiently for Kiba to come and pick her up for whatever mission they had been assigned on together. She'd have a distant, happy absent smile on her face as she'd sit there; humming sometimes or running a piece of string absently through her fingers.

Neji stood with his back to a tree, thinking of what to do next and accessing his options. First thing first he had to was find Kiba again, which meant going back to the last place he'd seen the man and his mutt and tracing them forwards from there. He gave an exaggerated sigh, pushing away from the tree to begin the long trail around when he sensed something.

Neji wasn't what you'd call a prodigy for no reason at all; he hadn't come top of his class by foolhardy luck and graduated to the distinguished rank of Jounin earlier than most of his classmates and associates just because he looked good in the uniform. Neji was an excellent ninja, and best but deadliest of all he was unafraid of killing if he had to.

Something just beyond the reach of his normal vision was watching him, he was sure of it. Something from the dark cavernous shadows of the line of trees was standing there and watching his every movement, as he stared at it he thought he saw something flicker in the darkness. Almost instantaneously Neji brought his hands together, "**Byakugan!**" he shouted, moving so there was one hand out in front of him and one hand out behind him. The forest shivered as everything swam into place, all sides at once filling every corner of his mind and allowing him to access it, thoughts spinning out into the darkness where his normal eyes couldn't see, hoping to find…expecting to find…. he wasn't sure didn't know. On all sides expecting a fight and a struggle for his life, but not, surely not…

"Kiba?"

Kiba didn't make a sound, one hand against his chest clutching at the wound that was coagulating and crusting around the sides whilst the other lay by his side. His chakra was slightly different Neji noted, a different colour working into the normal blue emanating from the wound on his chest, he started forward but Kiba took a step back he breath harsh and bubbling as if there was something wrong with his lungs.

"Don't." he said hoarsely, his appearance was altered too, pupils dilated, canines longer and deadlier looking, and at the end of his fingers there were claws.

"Can't…Neji…I think-I think I'm dying."

Silence dripped between them for a moment. Neji Huyga knew enough to understand that the next few moments were vital, the enlargement of Kiba's pupils meant that he had something running around his system that was most likely interfering with both his mental and physical synapses. He could be pumped with the desire to kill and be ten times stronger than he usually was and Neji had no idea of knowing until it actually happened. What Kiba lacked in brains he made up for in raw untested power, he was a volatile fighter at the best of times from what Neji had determined about him but had no desire to put his theory to the test just for curiosities sake.

Had the dog been there Neji might have had the upper hand, but alas Akamaru was nowhere to be found.

"I can help Kiba, I can help. Just calm down and let me come to you. I need you to put your hands behind your head and to trust me."

Kiba gave him a sort of lop sided smile as he backed against a tree and slid slowly down it's trunk.

"You think I'm going to try and kill you, don't you?"

His breathing was heavy, more agitated, heart pumping fast pushing the whatever-it-was around and around his system over and over again. Whatever Neji was going to do, he had better do it fast.

"Your afraid of me, you think I'm one of them."

Neji decided to ignore this irrational statement his mind postulating that the best course of action would be to incapacitate Kiba, then take him back to camp.

"And you're going to kill me now, aren't you?"

Neji's colourless eyes flickered up to meet Kiba's amber ones for a second before looking away again and accessing the terrain. If Kiba tried to kill him, neither of them was in any doubt that Neji would retaliate in exactly the same way.

They stared at each other for a moment, a cloud passed over the sun and the light dimmed, the strange anomaly in Kiba's chakra flared and Neji held himself wary, holding fast onto the thought that his eyes would see every move Kiba would make and stop them in their tracks. The throb of strange chakra in Kiba throbbed and then surged, blinding Neji for an instant in a way he'd never experienced before, burning at the receptors in his eyes so he staggered backwards in pain and then felt claws against his throat and realized suddenly that he was in fact fighting for his life.

* * *

Back at camp a terrified Akamaru was howling up a storm.

* * *

A/N: Now, to everyone that wants to kill me, I sincerely apologize. The aim is to finish the first half of Fish Bird by the end of December so you're allowed to hassle me to get the next chapter out faster. I want to say sorry for this chapter not coming out sooner except explain that I became quite seriously depressed recently and when I'm sad I don't particularly want to write dark, dark angst which Fish Bird will be for a few more chapters... I want to write Sasuke and Naruto eating banana pancakes and arguing about who was meant to take out the trash! 

Second question that seems to be bugging people, why did I choose this silly title? Well the original idea of Fish Bird is the idea of complete opposites, or more simply an impossible relationship. Like a love story between Bird and a Fish, or a Turtle and a Dove (which I read once and it made me cry). Naruto and Sasuke's relationship strikes me as an impossible relationship within cannon to maintain. It's like a burning train wreck, two violently passionate idiots who both need therapy, but no matter how hard Sasuke pushes Naruto doesn't let go. Regardless of whether you think it's platonic or not -insert meaningful cough here- it's pretty much the strongest relationship in Naruto, and like the rest of us who are reading the manga and waiting for our explosive, fantastic reunion of our Naruto and Sasuke and whatever the hell comes with it, we know it's going to be good.

If you liked it guys, please do drop me a review.

p.s thank you Aetha and Rosi for help with the intro.


	17. Gotta be somebody's blues

Fish Bird (魚鳥）

By The Eternity Dragon/AcaciaBrown

**Disclaimer:** I TAKE IT ALL BACK KISHIMOTO! I DON'T WANT NARUTO TO GO THROUGH ANYMORE EMOTIONAL TRAUMA!!!!!!!!!!

**Chapter 17**- Gotta be somebody's blues

A/N: I HATE THIS FIC, I HATE IT, IT WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE ANYMORE! Also, thank you Rosi, Aetha, and Livia for all that help with the rougher version of this. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

* * *

Naruto woke up to the heavy pounding of his heart inside his rib cage, or at least he thought that was what had woken him up. As his blue eyes opened the dim light soared across his cornea and burnt hazily down his optical nerve. A dull aching sensation kicked up in the back of his head as he saw Sai leaning over him; vacant crooked smile, arms crossed over his knees and knew immediately that his waking had been_anything_ but an accident. 

"You know you scream like a girl, don't you?" the familiar voice told him without the slightest hint of subtlety or niceness.

"Fuck you dickhead!" Naruto snapped back automatically.

His tongue was dry and sticking unpleasantly to the roof of his mouth, and he propped himself up on his elbows screwing his face up whilst drowsiness and sleep sprinted into memory.

"Better than being dickless." Sai responded so smoothly he seemed to do it without an intake of breath.

He was squatting on his knees leaning over Naruto. His pale skin almost seeming to glow in the light emanating from high up the wall next to which Naruto was lying. It was still the Sai Naruto remembered. That dirty mouthed, insensitive son of a bitch that had replaced Sasuke and left Naruto with the uncomfortable confusion as to deciding whether he loved him like a brother or hated him like one.

"Are you this charming to everyone Sai, or do you make a special effort just for me?"

Sai gave him a look, which might have almost been a smile, but it was hard to tell in the half darkness that surrounded them. Naruto's eyes still filled with sleep had not yet adjusted to the half gloom and things slid groggily in and out of focus again.

"I'm supposed to ask you how you're feeling." Sai went on ignoring Naruto's earlier sarcastic question, "But seeing as how Sakura gave you opium, you must be feeling great."

"Is_that_ what this floaty feeling is?" Naruto exclaimed both hands coming up to the sides of his head as if to keep his skull from departing company with his neck.

"God damnit I thought I'd hit my head really hard on something."

"Well you did that too," Sai told him with a shrug of his shoulders looking as unconcerned as always.

"But your skull is so thick and your brain already so severely damaged that if you lost your head in a tragic…head loosing accident it wouldn't really affect your IQ much."

Naruto turned round to swipe at the place where he thought Sai's head was but through the soupy haze in his brain misjudged the distance and ended up in a heap on the floor, the blanket twisted clumsily about his waist and legs.

Sai laughed.

"I asked you to check on him!" someone snapped from the blind spot on Naruto's left.

"Not aggravate him, insult him and make his condition worse! He needs to rest that leg for at least another hour so all the muscles set properly or he might never be able to walk on it normally again. Or did you not understand that when_**I-told-you-not-to-irritate-him-in-any-way-form-or-manner**_?"

"You see the thing is," Sai continued up as if he had never heard Sakura's angry noises from behind them and leaning forwards to help Naruto up.

"If she keeps nagging me like this, she's going to get premature wrinkles and it's only a matter of time after that when it will get to the point that her whole face will cave in because she complains so much. Then she'll be sorry."

Naruto stifled down a laugh that he felt come gurgling up his throat, hastily turning it into a hacking cough.

"The next time," Sakura snarled at Sai, her hands on her hips her green eyes dancing with a jewelled fire equivalent to that of an erupting volcano.

"The next time you find yourself alone, I'm going to kill you."

Sai gave her the look he'd given Naruto, the almost-a-smile-but-not look, and said without venom or sarcasm but with bare bold fact that it had been worth it.

Sakura gave a derisive snort and moving her hands from her hips walked quietly over to Naruto, he saw her boots and the smooth column of her legs first before she squatted down next to Sai her face everything that Naruto remembered and yet infinitely more beautiful, more passionate, more alive than he had ever recalled it to before.

//_She was alive, she was alive// _

He seemed to be holding the wings of a miracle in his hands and clutching on for dear life, begging not to let go.

"Oh Sakura…Sakura-chan!" he blurted out and the intense look she had on her face crinkled into something else, relief, agony, desire, love, desperation, compassion and bewilderment.

It seemed to be everything at the same time, like the way he was feeling echoed on her face until it threatened to spill over into a tidal wave that threatened to pour out of both of them.

He realised suddenly it was _her_ nose and hot salty tears that were skidding down his neck, and _his_ arms around her body holding her close never wanting to let go again.

_His_ eyes screwed up and _his_ face turned into her hair, waiting until the little sobs in Sakura's chest had settled down and the lump in his throat was sufficiently swallowed.

She pulled back a moment wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and grinning feebly at Sai who said with the most amount of fondness he could express in his voice that they were the biggest pair of sentimental twats he had ever had the misfortune of meeting.

The statement made Sakura laugh.

"I missed you too, you shit." Mumbled Naruto leaning forwards to brush his forehead against Sai's, unfortunately a mixture of drugs, exhaustion and emotional turmoil made Naruto over-judge the distance between them somewhat.

Instead of a manly, affectionate bump of skull against skull Naruto's head made uncomfortable connection with Sai's shoulder. And whilst Naruto swore, held the bridge of his nose and asked Sakura with all sincerity whether or not she thought it was broken, Sai took it to be brotherly affection.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked at the exact same time Sakura rubbing her eyes said, "How did you get here?"

They looked at each other, both surprised and uncertain and heard Sai laugh at both of them.

"Let Naruto ask first." He said smoothly, "I have the feeling he came all this way to save us."

Naruto nodded, a shy smile spreading across his lips. His eyes now adjusted to the light could see that they were in a small cavern, and that all around him the floor was littered with straw, sheets, blankets and pillows.

_Rudimentary beds_, he suddenly realised, backpacks, personal belongings, people were living here…. they were living here or staying here…hiding here… to his left the cavern mouth met a cross way of tunnels and his ears picked up the noises from outside.

The shuffle of feet, heavy breathing, the light murmur of people talking and the delicious smell of cooking food as it was pushed round and round a pot. Lots of food cooking, lots of people, lots of noises, drifting in from the caverns outside like the gate way into another world.

"I think you've met them, haven't you?" Sakura ventured first, her fingers laced tightly with each other as she sat down by Naruto's side and started to explain. He kept his eyes on her face, looking at the way her hair slid smoothly across the sides of her face and her neck. Her hair was longer than it had been last time he'd seen it, he was sure of that.

It was just above the rise of her shoulders now, moving as she spoke, still as thick and heavy as ever.

"Met who?"

Sakura gave Sai a side-glance, a slight flicker of her eyes so that they both shared a look that slid forwards to Naruto again.

"The people here call them Yokai, apparently there have been stories about them residing here, waiting to be set loose so they can wreck havoc on the world for centuries. But before now there's never been more proof then myth. When we got here nothing seemed out of the ordinary, we were helping them rebuild, you know? They'd had some natural disasters here earlier, huge earthquakes, floods, horrific lightening storms that weren't common in this region."

"Come to think of it now," Sai said, his head resting on his knee and his dark staring eyes seeing straight into Naruto.

"These things were probably the reason behind the freak weather incidents."

"When you say Yokai," Naruto began slowly, holding up his hands before Sakura could continue.

"You mean those monsters don't you? You're saying all of them came from here? How, when? When did you know? What are we doing here? Shouldn't we be outside? Surely they're going to come up here any moment and eat the lot of us, we should go, go now!"

And at that he tried to stand up, but his leg was uncooperative and sent him staggering and falling on top of Sai who complained loudly that if Naruto wanted to do that then he _**sure as hell**_ wasn't going to end up on the bottom.

Sakura yelled at both of them for being oafs. Naruto a clumsy oaf and Sai a coarse, dirty minded oaf.

Then she reprimanded Naruto, pushing him firmly back onto the makeshift bed again saying sternly that he'd dislocated his knee earlier but she'd fixed it, and the best thing for him to do right now would be to rest it a little longer.

"Besides," she said slowly running her fingers across the top of his forehead so she could push the blond hair from out of his eyes.

"They don't come up here very often into the old mines, and we have people patrolling along all the entrance tunnels. They're too preoccupied with the older places; here they say someone sealed something into the heart of the mountain and that it has recently been disturbed, and now the army of Yokai is on the march for war."

She widened her eyes dramatically and lowered her voice, "They say that the leader of the Yokai wishes to purge the land and take revenge upon all of those that trapped them inside the mountain, and that the demons have woken with a terrible rage that shall burn all of the countryside."

"You say that like you don't believe it." Naruto replied with half a smile, she gave him a soft look from under her lashes and slipped one of her hands under his.

"I don't believe it." She said firmly, "it's not revenge, or a purge. It's a blood bath."

Naruto swallowed uncomfortably and felt something stick in the back of his throat.

"It began at average speed I suppose." Sai continued for Sakura whose face had gone dark, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes distant as if she was seeing something very far away, Naruto squeezed her fingers beneath his and saw her face flush slightly as she looked up to meet his gaze.

"Rumours, things watching you in the dark. People began disappearing one by one until it came right up to the village and stood outside the gates. They give you a sort of warning, did you know that?

Like an invitation to your death: _'You are respectfully requested to rethink your position in the world before the end.'_

Well the Elders here got a hold of the message, and as soon as they read it they had everyone evacuate. We were split up into teams to escort the villagers across the terrain and into the mountain shelters. A lot of people didn't make it through, if you got caught out at nightfall…."

Sai's voice trailed off and Naruto sensed something like regret and unease in the air.

"There aren't that many left in the mountain anymore, they seemed to have moved south across country to bring more war. No doubt they'll be arriving in Konoha soon ready to destroy it like they did here, they'll attack under the cover of nightfall and then everything will be wiped out. The most we're doing here is just surviving, we've divided the ninja up into fourteen groups and we all have rotors, two teams head out under the protection of the midday sun and gather food, four stay here and guard the civilians and the other patrol the tunnels making sure nothing comes through. When we came across you, Sakura-san and myself were venturing a little further than we were supposed to. The river divides up the mountain you see, one side is ours and the other side is theirs. We were wondering a little close to the border to be perfectly comfortable with, I guess it's a good thing we were or you would have certainly ended up as lunch."

"Why don't they come across to this side of the mountain?" Naruto asked perplexed, the floaty feeling of pleasure being chased away by his fast metabolism.

"They just don't…" Sakura said slowly. "The Elders say it's got something to do with one side of the mountain being blessed and the other side being cursed, but they roam all over the top of it on the outside. Really the safest places are inside these caverns, the little ones never come down here-"

"What little ones?"

"Oh, you know…the small ones that you can never seem to see properly. They don't seem to like the caves so much as the bigger ones do, mind you I'd rather take on a bigger one than a bunch of small ones, they're horrible…especially if they mark you."

Naruto sat up a little straighter, "Why? What happens then?"

"You go mad." Sai finished, looking about him as if he was spying for lunch.

"Sometimes Shinobi use a chemical concoction in battle to confuse the enemy and make them attack each other. There's a type of ant Shino told me once that sprays other ants with a chemical and it confuses the ant into attacking it's own colony, well you get one of those little metal things in you, you go insane. And if you don't get it out quick it gets much-_much_ worse, you start to become like them, crazy for bloodlust and hot with the desire to kill. You start mutilating yourself, cut off your own tongue so that you resemble something that isn't even human anymore, you become-"

"Sai, that's enough with the horror stories." Sakura told him sharply giving him a long look with her piercing green eyes.

"He doesn't know that that _actually_ happens. All the victims we've seen have had the barbs taken out of them pretty quickly."

"Well there was that one guy who stabbed Yamato in the arm when he tried to remove it don't you remember?"

Sakura let out a long-suffering sigh, "I seem to remember Yamato trying to stitch up the wound with a plant stem. Had I had been the victim I too would have stabbed him in the face I can assure you."

"She's so violent this one." Sai said with mute matter of fact-ness to Naruto, gnawing on the nail of his right thumb. "Is she kinky Naruto?"

"Sai!" was the simultaneous yelp of indignation from the blond and roar of wrath from Sakura as she threw herself at the dark haired pale skinned ninja. Naruto held her back by her arms and one arm around her waist as she threw death threats and curses in Sai's direction who only looked mildly perturbed and brushed an invisible layer of dust from his arms.

"I've had three months of him driving me up the bloody wall!" Sakura hissed clawing at Naruto's hand around her waist, "Always with the comments, the little sexist remarks and yesterday he told me I looked _**chubby**_!"

Naruto's mouth wriggled in a way that suggested he wanted to burst out laughing but quickly restrained himself; he shot Sai a look, which suggest he thought the man was playing with fire. Sai responded with a meaningful rise and fall of his shoulders dictating that whether or not he risked his life daily verbally sparring with Sakura to get her hot and bothered and mad like this, was worth it's weight in gold.

"You look beautiful." Naruto told her consolingly as Sakura twisted herself around in his arms to stare at him sceptically.

"Naruto," she said sternly, "I'm covered in muck and grime, and god knows I need a haircut, we're constantly fighting for our lives. I know as much as the next person in line that I look like a wreck. Every single one of us looks like we're half dead. But it doesn't help with **Nosferatu **(she spat this part out with extra venom) over here making sarcastic comments and trying to grind out every last seed of patience that he can find."

"Sai," Naruto said trying his utmost to keep all the laughter out of his voice, "I think you ought to apologize to her."

"I apologize for thinking you had breasts." Sai told her flatly, and in his minds eye Naruto could see him picking up a stick and poking it up a sleeping dragon's nostril.

"I came here to rescue you!" he blurted out before Sakura managed to squeeze out an inhuman proportion of chakra and beat Sai to death with her bare hands.

"The council didn't want anyone to come, but I came anyway… to….to rescue you."

"By yourself?" she was looking at him then with something that was not wholly unrelated to adoration, the turn of her shoulder was pressed into the front of his chest and her legs slumped over his. She still smelt like Sakura too, that slight light fragrance that reminded him of blossom and hills bathed in summer sunshine.

"Not…by myself." He began with hesitation, his tongue skipping parts of the words he wanted to say like: _Sasuke, with Sasuke, and I came with Sasuke._

"Well partly by myself, I wanted to come…it was…" he closed his eyes and laughed.

"It was complicated."

"But you still came…" her voice was soft and her hand which had somehow found it's way onto his knee pushed down with a firm pressure.

"Yeah…."

What was it about Sakura that made every part of him feel at ease and relaxed?

Yet at the same time he wanted to jump around and dance because she was showing him with her body and her voice that she cared…she cared _a lot_.

"Yeah, I came." He was going to add 'for you' onto the end of the sentence but it would have been unfair to Sai. But Sai it seemed had read the slight flush in Sakura's cheeks and the steady intense look she was giving Naruto.

He stood up brushing off his knees.

"Well I'll leave you two alone to talk…. Because Sakura obviously has some personal things she wants to discuss with you before you two mate."

"**Sai**!" Sakura snapped out scathingly, her cheeks flushing a deep cochineal colour.

He gave her a small wave over his shoulder and walked out the cavern, but he couldn't resist one last jibe, so before he left he was sure to leave the both of them with an equally scathing comment.

"You can tell me how he came to save us later after you've worked all those hormones out of your system. A word of advice Naruto, women who are sexually frustrated are a terrifying thing to behold…but then again seeing as you're dickless I don't know how that's going to resolve itself."

"It's a miracle he's still alive." Naruto said with some awe in his voice after Sai had wondered off. "If you're not going to kill him, I will."

Sakura laughed running her hands through her hair and cupping them in front of her mouth. "He's shit of a person to hang around and by god he has a dirty mouth…but you know what? The son of a bitch is always right, and I hate him for it."

She gave him another long look.

"I missed you."

It was simple statement, less a fact but more of a condition of heart, something completely unavoidable like the crumbling of snowflakes that signals the slide of an avalanche.

"Sakura…." He said slowly. "There's something we need to talk about."

"Oh." Her green eyes widened at his solemn tone of voice.

"Is it about coming here? Sai? Me? Or that stupid argument we had before I went?"

At this her fingers crept up to the seam of her mouth and she briefly bent her head down to her knees, but when she looked up again her face was full of an ardent determination.

"Because I know I got angry and told you you weren't committed enough but I was just… you'd been so good about me going away for ages and then I turn round and scream at you because I think you're acting like a child when you weren't…. I wanted to know that I meant as much to you as-well other people. I'd been talking to Ino and she made me think that maybe you were going to propose to me that night you asked me out to dinner and I was wearing that dress that you liked, but then you got all chocked up and then you didn't and I yelled at you and told you that we should break it off for sometime…. and then you just said _'Okay'_. Oh, Naruto! I know you only said okay because you thought that was what I wanted and I'm sorry for telling you to never talk to me again. I didn't mean it, I just…sometimes feel like the middle person because there always seems to be something or someone else between us."

"You mean like Sasuke?"

Her expression changed then, the look on her face becoming sharp, angular and somewhat guarded as if preparing for battle.

"I told you, when I first started going out with you that I was interested in _you_ not _you _as Sasuke's replacement."

"I didn't mean that," Naruto's stomach clenched and he felt his blood rise and fall awkwardly in his veins, flushing to his neck, ears and stomach.

"There's always been the unresolved relationship of Sasuke between us and the original Team Seven."

"I got my answer." She said simply, "I poured out my heart and found myself facing a vaulted door."

"But you loved him!"

"Yes!" she cried out. "Yes I did, in a foolish schoolgirl crush. I wanted nothing more than to be his wife and give him children but I was never capable of making him happy. He didn't communicate with me for one thing, I think he found me irritating, but I still loved him for it, I still do…but it's not in the same way I-" her voice trailed off and she looked defeated suddenly.

"I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to talk to me again, but you risked everything to come all the way here for me, so is it too much to think that maybe you'd like to hear what I have to say? I keep going over and over the mistakes we've made in my head and I thought I'd die without ever being able to tell you how much you mean to me…not just because we were part of Team Seven together…but because…because…" she gave a angry bark of a laugh.

"It makes me want to go over and relive my life again Naruto. I want to stand up to everyone that ever called you a loser or told you that you were worthless, I want-_I want_ to be able to tell you the first time round that I do love you and I'm not hiding behind anything or anyone or acting like something I'm not. And-and that I'm over Sasuke, or I was over Sasuke a long time ago and that he can do whatever because any past feeling I had for him…Naruto it's you that-"

"He's here." The Kitsune interrupted before Sakura came out with something that in five minutes time she might regret.

"Sasuke's here with me, we both came looking for you, and did Shikamaru, Kiba, Ino, Neji, Hinata, Lee and Choji… you know, that lot." He watched speculatively as the colour slowly drained out of Sakura's face, the way her mouth compressed and the confused movement of the head and eyes, flicking down and then up mouth pressed down in the corners and the little gasp of: _"What?"_

He told her then, everything from start to finish, how they'd found him, how they'd argued, how they'd fought, how Sasuke was hiding secrets more than he usually had and how Naruto had fallen into the sticky situation of not knowing what he felt for Sasuke. He confessed, he ranted, he yelled and shouted whilst Sakura didn't say a word, looked at the floor, looked at her shoes, looked at her hands twisting over each other as they spoke. He omitted the ring and the fact that he'd hidden it in her plant plot, he didn't tell her that he'd most likely face a trial when he went back to Konoha_if_ there was a Konoha to go back to after all of this madness. That he could face permanent suspension for his disobedience or even worse, but just as likely, exile.

But he thought she knew that anyway, just from the way her mouth turned down at the corners and the way she tilted her head so that hair fell carefully across her face.

He hated himself for making her do that, making her move her fingers up to her eyes in a careful rubbing motion and the small glisten of tears on the tips of her fingers as she moved them away again.

"Sakura-chan?" he found himself asking hesitantly dreading the answer and waiting for her to look at him and give him the long awaited reply.

* * *

Kiba wasn't thinking like a person, he was thinking like an animal- a predator. He was down on all fours, teeth bared, hackles raised, low growl that turned into a rumble of thunder as he leapt pushing the Huyga backwards. 

Neji yelled, temporarily blinded by the sudden flash and spark of Kiba's chakra, Kiba felt the flare too, as though a misty cloud had settled over his line of vision so that the only thing he could see were the smoky outlines of how the world had once been, flickering shadows on the wall of reality.

Kiba often thought like an animal when he was required to, thought in smells, touches, sounds and guttural instinct. When he thought like a wolf things became simpler, more organized, as a wolf he felt less on a human scale of petty emotions, he could see his priority clearly of protecting the pack and unswerving loyalty to his pack brothers and leader. He'd deal with what was directly in front of him and suffer with the consequences later, and this stranger…this person in front of him meant to kill him, Kiba could see that in his eyes clearly enough.

_// Kill him before he kills __**you**_

Kiba was defending what was dear to him, if he let this person get back to the others he might turn on them and kill them as he was trying to do to Kiba now.

_// It'll be quick, it'll be easy. Rip out his throat and let him bleed to death… // _

The something whispered in his ear, it had a cold hand at the back of his mind and was gripping it fiercely, yanking his thoughts back and sending them flying out of the window. Dimly images of the 'others' passed through his minds eye, it was like trying to peer at a faded picture through foggy glass.

Kiba hugged his body closer to the ground, his chakra spiralling in arbitrary peaks, flashing here, soaring there as the enemy watched him cautiously across the space of the forest clearing.

Neji was telling Kiba that if he came any closer he'd use lethal force on him but Kiba wasn't listening, he wasn't Kiba Inuzuka anymore. He was something else entirely, something new, something deadly, something that was stalking it's prey ready to take down the kill, he felt a shiver of anticipation run through him.

Kiba came at Neji in the same way the Huyga had seen a leopard cat take down an unsuspecting sparrow once, he came in from the left the feinted to the right before repeating the motion once over and leaping at Neji meaning to come down at him from the air.

Curiosity overcame the Huyga's other senses of logic and allowing his chakra to swarm about him and act as a temporary shield crossed his arms over his head and allowed the him to make a direct hit. It was something of a mistake, the blow was accompanied by another supernatural flare of chakra and Neji felt himself driven five meters down into the compact earth and rock. Tree roots splintered and cracked as Neji and his chakra shield forced a five-meter diameter circle into the ground, clouds of dirt and dust flying in all directions hither and thither.

The chakra shield had prevented any real harm from coming to either one of them, but Neji's arms felt uncomfortably numb. A sure sign that more chakra than normal had been pumped out the pores in his skin to compensate for that blow to his head.

But where was Kiba?

Kiba was sitting on a branch just behind Neji, knowing the Huyga didn't need to turn round to see him there. Kiba's tongue darted out of his mouth to slowly caress his lower incisors a voracious look in his eyes as his normally good humoured mouth spread into a wide carnal grin.

Neji had heard of people being possessed before, he'd heard that the supernatural beings of the mountains: the Tengu sometimes spirited people way and delivered them back in an altered and demented state. Neji was a firm believer in knowledge, logic and fate. He had never liked fairy tales, myths or unproven beliefs. And yet he could help remembering the stories his father had told him as a child, like the fact that the supernatural fire of the possessed emanates through the mouth eyes. But Kiba's mouth was open and wide, a dark slash against the trees, laughing at Neji. A slightly high-pitched manic laugh as if he knew something that the Huyga did not, the person sitting in the tree hardly resembled Kiba Inuzuka at all. That boyish roguishness that he was so famous for, that little spark of flirtation and devilry in his amber eyes had gone altogether instead his eyes had an almost glassy quality to them, like dark glossy marbles, cold to the touch but as hard as stone.

Kiba was going to rip out Neji Huyga's throat and as the man bled carmine pools Kiba would watch the liquid be soaked up into the soil staining it a deeper shade of brown.

_// So simple, so simple and so fast. //_

A dreamy smile crept across his lips.

The plan was simple, Neji thought. The next time Kiba leapt Neji would take out all the chakra points on his arms and legs, if Kiba couldn't move he couldn't attack. All his strategy was based in Taijutsu, some Ninjutsu but no Genjutsu to Neji's knowledge. He had a feeling that if he killed Kiba Hinata would probably never forgive him for it, even if it had been in self-defence.

Kiba leapt and Neji attacked, it was over in a second. Kiba spinning backwards and was slammed with such force into a nearby tree that it shuddered, it's old roots moaning in the ground that encased them and it's branches quivering as a flurry of leaves were sent spinning in dizzying circles to the ground.

Neji paused, tongue darting out of his mouth to lick the cracked surface of the lips he had been biting down upon the second before. Kiba slid down the trunk of the tree to lie at the bottom in a dead slump, head leaning forwards onto his chest, legs sprawled out at odd angles.

"Shit." Muttered Neji wondering if he'd miscalculated as he saw the strange charka spiral and die, "You better still be alive."

Kiba didn't respond, he didn't move, he didn't even seem to breath, in the distance Neji could dimly hear a dog howling and wanted to take a step forwards towards Kiba but couldn't get his feet to move. His eyes told him that the youth was down for the count but something persisted at the back of his mind nagging, worrying at him.

He edged forwards slowly, Kiba's heart had slowed right down to an almost non-existent lub-dub that propelled blood in thin streams around his system, if the stream of oxygen lowered anymore he'd fast fall into the category of oxygen starvation. If he wanted to save his life he'd have to take him back to camp, and _fast_.

As he approached to within spitting distance of Kiba, Neji thought he saw a slight flickering in his heart beat and promptly stopped - the hairs on the nape of his neck rising in quick succession.

By the red blood streaks of Kiba's tribal tattoos on his face, up by the cheekbones and under the thick auburn lashes was the sparkle of Kiba's dark irises as he watched him move closer. Neji didn't even have time to react; stupidly he realized too late that some animals play dead to entice their prey closer. It happened so fast, too fast.

Neji was forced backwards his spine slamming into the ground beneath him. The chakra blast burnt the leaves from the surrounding trees and singed the bark off the wood, leaving the raw exposed flesh of the tree, dripping with soot and sap like charred flesh and thick congealing blood that oozed lazily onto the ground beneath it.

Kiba leant over Neji, a look of defiant victory of his face, claws extended, one hand pinning his prey down by the throat the other raised high in the air ready to fly down and strike Neji's head from his shoulders. Death by decapitation…not the way that Neji had imagined dying in the endless scenarios he often came up with in his head, he'd always gone for something a little less gruesome and a little more voluntary but then again life was always full of endless hiccups and curveballs.

One couldn't predict everything.

_// Kill him, kill him… do it __**now**_

It would be so easy, just one quick swipe and he'd be dead…it'd all be over. He wanted to kill Neji…Neji…with all that long hair he looked like Hinata lying there in the dust. They had the same eyes, same shape, and same colour. Except Hinata's were less bold, they always looked down and then up again as if asking for permission. Hinata…Hinata wouldn't want – the thought came across foggy as if a dark filter had been passed over the lense of a light, a dull buzzing sound filled up the base of his skull, and he shook his head as if warding off flies.

_// Kill him. // _

The voice continued to whisper, more persistent now, less enticing, more commanding and Kiba felt his hand waver and fall, perilously close to the deadly motion but stopping short just before the pale rise of flesh.

"I don't…" he coughed out as if it cost him monumental effort, the sclera around his cornea red and pink, teeth clenched down hard drawing blood from the inside of his mouth, tears leaked out through his tear ducts.

The invisible hand on the back of his skull pushed his hand down for him, claws extended the rise of blood lust rising higher and higher in his system, pulsing to an uncontrollable heat. With a yell like a deranged animal Kiba went in for the killing blow as Neji struggled to break the Inuzuka's vicelike grip on his throat.

It was a fruitless waste of energy.

Kiba was famous for his death grips and Neji was famous for his fighting style, he had been caught and behind the bars of his cage knew he was never going to escape.

The hand came down with a sickening slice, Neji shut his eyes preferring not to look death in the face and waited…. and waited…he was _still_ waiting.

Was Kiba toying with him?

Neji cracked open an eye and saw Kiba Inuzuka, that wild look in his eyes, mouth open exposing those long canines, claws millimetres away from the unprotected flesh of his throat. But Kiba had stopped, chest-panting, blood still searing through his veins at a terrifying tempo. Hundreds of thoughts flickered through Neji's mind within a second that felt like a year. His eyes slid slowly to the left and Neji realised Kiba had not stopped out of mercy or realisation he'd been restrained.

Shikamaru stood panting just outside the cover of the trees, hands pressed together to make that familiar sign that indicated the shadow imitation technique. But it wasn't with the same confident ease he usually used it with; indeed his whole physique seemed strained as if Kiba's chakra was impossible to control.

"_Hurry the hell up!_" he shouted over his shoulder, a small thread of panic in his voice, indeed Neji could feel Kiba shifting over him. His mind loosing interest in Neji and focusing on Shikamaru and the others instead, new game, new players…more _prey_.

Akamaru came bursting through the trees still howling, barking and yelping like his coat was on fire hackles raised and lips drawn back as far as they would go, exposing each and everyone of his many long gleaming teeth. He had placed himself between Kiba and Hinata, Neji noticed with a small explosion of panic in his lower abdomen, Hinata was looking scared but equally determined.

"Ino do it now!" Shikamaru was yelling as Ino running forwards to get a clear shot at Kiba placed her hands in front of her body in perfect position for the mind switch technique she was so famous for. Neji could understand the rising note of urgency in Shikamaru's voice; Kiba was beginning to move with more certainty and less visible restraint. That hungry carnal look directed towards the strangers that had interrupted his kill.

The second Ino performed the body switching technique Neji knew it to be a mistake, she began to scream, her voice mixed with Kiba's inside of one body, one mind that was obviously in agony as it was suddenly had to make room for two. Everything went into overdrive, Kiba's chakra level went through the roof in a way that just wasn't natural and had Shikamaru not broken off the shadow bind there and then Neji would have been scorched by it.

As Kiba rolled off him howling and clutching his head as if it had just been split open by a blunt meat cleaver Neji scrambled away, watching horrified as Ino's own body convulsed in Hinata's arms as if it was going into shock. They were going to die, they were both going to die right there and then, or at least they would have done had Shikamaru not intervened.

In retrospect what Shikamaru Nara did was both incredibly stupid and incredibly brave, the panic that gripped him at the thought of loosing both his best friend and the (reluctant) love of his life in one fast swoop drove him into reckless action. He threw himself at Kiba, hands linked over his shoulder, elbows raised and then swung, delivering a powerful blow into Kiba's cranium.

_**// Fuck the chakra**_. //

The raw energy burnt the material of his chunnin uniform and singed his skin but Shikamaru didn't care, Kiba went slamming to the ground, where for a second he lay, coughing up blood, gunk and what looked to be a dislodged tooth. Ino's breath returned to her body as if the blow had forcibly pushed out her psyche from Kiba's head. Everyone took a collective intake of breath.

Then Shikamaru realised what a serious mistake he'd made, Kiba with all the ferocity of a wounded animal, pinned into a corner with nothing to loose, and launched himself at Shikamaru. A look of real fear passed of Shikamaru Nara's features before he was rolling around in the dirt fighting for his life.

His best friend…his best friend was trying to claw his eyes out, sever the major arteries in his neck, rip out his jaw and fling it half way across the forest.

Kiba didn't recognize him, Kiba didn't _know who he was_.

People were around them screaming and shouting, no one daring to take a hit in case they hit Shikamaru instead. Kiba was twisting, writhing, pulling, pushing, punching, clawing, scratching, and tearing at Shikamaru as if he meant to reduce his body to bloody ribbons. There was so much energy, so much violence, the smell of blood and sweat searing up Shikamaru's nose burning the insides of his throat.

With a shriek like demon Kiba shot at Shikamaru's jugular with just his bare teeth, and Shikamaru not knowing what else to do, drove his own fist into Kiba's mouth. Screaming down a mountain as he felt Kiba's canines close down on the soft flesh of his wrist, right down to the bone they went with a crunch and sickening gush of thick red spurting blood.

There was a loud _'Thunk'_ then, and all of a sudden the light in Kiba's eyes went out, like a window ripped out of a house in the middle of a cyclone. He slumped forwards onto Shikamaru's chest, breathing slowing down and stilling, chakra levels down to a bare minimum.

Shikamaru found himself staring at Hinata whom was holding a thick tree branch in one hand having just swung it at Kiba's head.

"I didn't…" she began softly, her bottom lip trembling as if she was keeping back a swell of tears.

"I didn't kill him did I?"

* * *

Sasuke had let the snake wind around his arm. "This way," it had said, "the tunnel to the left. Mind the gap…. No not the right tunnel the air smells bad down there." 

They had walked and walked for what felt like days, years even, but eventually they had come to place where if Sasuke listened closely he could hear the rumble and movement of human activity.

"Is Naruto there?"

Yes, the snake assured him. The one Sasuke wanted was most definitely there, the smell of the possessed human (any one could smell that stink) and the smell that Sasuke carried with him too. Sasuke had asked before what the snake had meant by that but all he got was enigmatic answers, his understanding of the reptile's language was limited enough as it was anyway. When the snake told him it smelt something it meant it differently from the way Sasuke smelt something.

The snake encompassed the word smell with the word see and feel and hear as much as it meant anything else. Sasuke was scrabbling around in the dark trying to encompass a language that worked on base instincts as much as sense functions more finely developed than his own. He could see better than the average human being it was true, but he lacked the intuitive sense of nature the snake seemed linked into. It was if it spoke with the rocks, sang with the air, communed with things Sasuke didn't even know existed. So when it wound around his neck and told him that humans would be converging in on him in less than a minute before Sasuke had even detected them, he was less taken back and more intrigued by how he heighten his senses to that point.

Sasuke was used to interrogation by now, hell he would have found it creepy to encounter a lone man wondering around the dark tunnels with a snake with a diamond shaped pattern on it's head wound twice around his neck. He put his hands in the air, he got face down on the ground whilst they felt him over and removed his weapons. He was escorted down narrow passageway after narrow passageway, a kunai pressed threateningly against his back and death threats whispered in his ear about what would happen if he tried to escape.

Sasuke was impatient, he wanted to see Naruto again and the thought rushed inside of him as strong and as steady as the underground river. Naruto was alive and Sasuke had almost found him, hazy thoughts of relief and contentment swam up and through Sasuke. He'd deal with all the other problems later; he just wanted to see Naruto again, soon, sooner…why was it taking so long?

The snake hissed in his ear, it's warm scales rubbing along the back of his neck in a soothing manner telling him to slow down his heart beat.

They stopped in front a rudimentary gate, which had been constructed across a tunnel entrance. The Shinobi holding him knocked three times and the slat slid back to expose a man's dark eyes.

"We've got a wonderer." One of the men behind Sasuke said gruffly, and Sasuke felt himself being pushed roughly through the make shift door into a wide open space with the guttering golden glow of oil lamps, the sound of people and the smell of cooking.

"What's this?" someone asked sharply, and Sasuke saw a tall pale figure walking towards him with dark hair and dark eyes like his own. He was perplexed for a second as the ninja started firing off questions like: "Is he safe?" "Did you check him?" "Where did you find him?" "Another lost lamb I presume?"

The last question was directed at Sasuke but before he could respond with a scathing remark about sheep knowing their place he spied the Konoha symbol on what was presumably a Shinobi's headband.

"Naruto," Sasuke said automatically, pushing forwards suddenly.

"I came to see Naruto. Is he here? Can you take me too him?"

The man in front of him gave this irritating little smile that was obviously not a smile at all but a sarcastic twist of his lips and said politely, "I thought it was good manners to ask your captors politely if they would be so kind as to grant you a favour. Not the other way round."

"Well you're not me." Sasuke bit back holding his ground, Uchiha's don't take cheek they deal it out.

"Take me to Naruto, I know he'd want to see me."

The ninja made an 'umandah' noise and looked languidly at Sasuke as if summing up his options. Eventually he said, "Naruto might be a little bit preoccupied with someone at the moment, they have quite a lot of hormones to work through I'm afraid."

"Tell him its Sasuke."

That got him a long and interested look, the ninja's whole demeanour changed suddenly as if Sasuke had become very interesting to him all of a sudden. The expression changed into something that was almost a smile but not.

"Alright," he said, "come this way."

He made a motion to the guards who nodding backed away down the tunnel they had come from again and disappeared off into the darkness once more.

The tall pale Shinobi lead him through the crowds of people, weaving his way across other tunnel entrances before halting in front of one, his mouth become compressed and almost contemplative.

"Ah," he said turning round as if to dissuade Sasuke, "he's a bit_preoccupied_ at the moment."

Something about the way Sai said 'preoccupied' made Sasuke's insides jump, he shouldered the other man out of the way and stood himself in the caverns entrance.

He saw Naruto there, sitting legs crossed holding Sakura's hands in his own laughing and crying and kissing her fingers as if they'd never been apart and Sakura smiling whilst tears ran down her cheeks.

They didn't look happy so much as content and at ease with each other, and Sasuke felt as if he was intruding on some very private conversation and Sakura was conversing with a side of Naruto that he'd never been able to reach down and touch. Perhaps because he'd never tried, maybe even because it was impossible between them. But the knowledge of that made his insides burn with anger and an obscene amount of jealously.

He was about to take a step back, walk away and pretend the rivers rapids had swallowed him whole when Naruto as if reacting to a sixth sense turned round and saw him. Their eyes met and the electricity between them snapped, jolted and shivered all over again, predicting the likely outcome of all hell breaking loose.

* * *

A/N: **FIRSTLY LOOK, at the fanart Suiryoka gave me here:** myoshiki(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Fish-Bird-Chapter-15-SasuNaru-71776504

It's so adorable, and I love the concept!!!! 333 keep drawing, I love it! Also she's a budding artist so SUPPORT!!!! I love it I love it I love it x3

So now the shit hits the fan. You guys are supposed to be getting a chapter update early next week, and I need help keeping that deadline because this chapter is about... 8k:'D it takes a long time to write and I need you guys to help me sit down at the computer and write write write! Because I tend to write in blocks, it tends to be about 4-5 hours of consecutively typing the chapter out all at once. Because I am not sensible and find once I start writing a scene I have to finish all of it. So I need your support if I'm going to hit that END OF PART ONE deadline.

HELP ME GUYS!!!!

All the best, and hopefully updating next week,

TED xxxxxx


	18. Something to believe in

Fish Bird (魚鳥）

By The Eternity Dragon/AcaciaBrown

**Disclaimer:** Why is it every time Sasuke and Itachi clash I'm always routing for Itachi?? I'm a horrible person but I'm always thinking SASUKE YOU CAN'T WIN WITHOUT NARUTO! D': now I fear Peine is going to kidnap Naruto and all hell will break lose.

**A/N**: Because I was sick over Christmas (really sick FYI) I thought I'd make this chapter extra long. That, and it was a shit of a chapter to write for various reasons that left me regretting the fact as to why Fish Bird wasn't an extremely long one shot because it would make my life a hell of a lot easier. I think this chapter took about three days to write. And the theme is put to a song by Aqualung, you might want to look up the lyrics afterwards because it suits the chapter perfectly.

**Chapter 18**: Something To Believe in

* * *

Nobody breathed.

The situation sat there like a tarantula on a wedding cake covered with custard.

For a moment Sasuke stood, his back unnaturally straight before he released an exhalation of air and wondered whether or not it was humanly possible to fake indifference.

Naruto started forwards, real panic clawing at his chest suddenly as his head felt a wash of new emotions reel over him; anger, joy, relief, confusion, guilt, indignation and trepidation. If Sai played with fire regularly when he commented on Sakura's weight, then Naruto was gambling with odds he didn't even want to consider.

Sasuke was angry, he was _hurt_, and he'd probably jumped to at least a thousand conclusions within the last thirty seconds.

None of which, of course were true.

But that didn't matter, Jiraiya had once in one of his rare bursts of wisdom, pointed out to Naruto that truth was relative to the eye of the beholder, and whatever relative truth Sasuke had picked out it was hardly going to be a good one.

Sai was the only one amongst them who wasn't acting as if he'd just been forced to swallow a live cat. Sakura's attention both pale and firm turned in Sasuke's direction. Her plump pink lips parted slightly, her green eyes half narrowed as if seeing someone through foggy glass. Naruto's eyes were held with Sasuke's feeling every part of Sasuke's virulent temper and jealously beat down on him inside a second that seemed to last a millennia.

Sai cleared his throat as if by doing so he could clear the air.

"He calls himself Sasuke."

He said bluntly, his eyes still performing the rudimentary flick from Sakura and Naruto and back to Sasuke again.

"I brought him here to ask you if he really was Sasuke. But seeing as you both look thoroughly horrified, I guess you all know each other."

Still one said anything.

Sai sighed and took a step backwards, one hand on his hip, one forefinger balanced neatly on the base of his chin like a maestro surveying his latest work of art.

There was another moment of silence, which only allowed the tension to grow. Naruto knew the longer he stood there not saying anything the angrier and angrier Sasuke would become until something fought it's way loose. After all you can only wind a machine so far before something internal breaks, people were no different. But Sasuke was a ninja – if he became tightly wound about something it wouldn't just be harsh words and a scalding temper to deal with. The consequences would be far… far deadlier. When you were angry, you were stupid, and in this situation, stupidity was not a luxury any of them could afford.

Sai took another stab at conversation having just plainly figured something out.

"So let me get this right, you two were lovers." He pointed at Sakura and Naruto, his expression a peculiar mix of both mirth and vindication.

"_**Sai, shut up!**_" Naruto snarled without the slightest hint of amusement in his tone, Sasuke was giving him that empty smile which signalled both malice and a palatable amount of anger.

Sai of course ignored him.

"And yet you two are also lovers, am I right?" he was pointing now to Sasuke and Naruto together with his index and middle finger of the same hand, the other placed firmly in his back pocket.

"_Were_." Sasuke said, speaking for the first time with fixed resolution in his voice.

"And I don't one could accurately assign the term 'lovers' seeing as I only fucked him a few times just for the hell of it."

"You're a dick and a liar." Naruto retorted in a low gravely voice, fists clenched by his sides.

Sasuke was fixing him with one of those hard blank looks that took in the whole world but gave no clue as to what he was actually thinking.

"But isn't that they way you like it Naruto?"

Naruto would have happily leapt at Sasuke here and attempted to smash his face in, but Sakura placed a hand on his shoulder and without words told him gently to calm down. It was easier said than done, Naruto's insides felt lucid knowing that Sasuke was giving into his pride and deliberately trying to wind Naruto up.

What did he want from him?

For Naruto to prostate himself at Sasuke's knees and beg for forgiveness?

Damnit, if Sasuke would just let him explain!

But Sakura was talking now her own hard determination, trying to relieve the tension in the room by speaking openly to Sasuke. If she felt at lost for what to or intimidated by Sasuke's heavy glare she didn't let it show on her face. Almost as if she'd decided that if Sasuke could see or sense weakness in the way she moved her lips or blinked, he'd attack.

She was probably right too, Sasuke's expression was uncannily similar to the one he'd worn years ago on that hospital roof top, his eyes had that hard focused look and Naruto itched to go over to Sasuke and set him straight but knew that Sasuke wasn't in a mood to listen to '_but_' '_it wasn't_' or '_us_'.

"I can't believe you're alive." Naruto heard her saying, her left shoulder bumping against his chest.

"We thought years ago, 'You're never coming back' and yet, here you are…. you know it's funny but I still imagine you to be this tall." She made an indicatory line with her hand.

Sasuke looked stolidly back at her, he might have been cast out of iron for all he tried to do to alleviate the situation. He almost seemed curious in fact to how she was going to handle herself, as if he was testing her to see how far she'd go before she broke.

Sai folded his arms seemingly a little irritated with the fact that Sasuke was trying to push Sakura against invisible ropes.

"And Naruto, was telling me all about you and him and your…. Um _(her voice became a little higher)_…relationship."

"I suppose he exaggerated, he's quite prone to doing that."

"Look you arrogant jerk of a bastard!" Naruto exploded with suddenly.

"Stop it or I'll-"

"How did you find this place?" Sai interrupted looking at Sasuke with genuine curiosity, and more than a little dislike.

"The guards told me you were found wondering alone in one of the tunnels that connects to the deeper parts of the mountain, that's very unusual. Those dark tunnels are where the demons come from don't you know. Why weren't you eaten?"

Sasuke turned to look at Sai as he said this, the edges of contempt on his expression more pronounced than ever before so he was almost grimacing with it.

Instead of answering Sai's question, Sasuke shot back another query, arms folded, his manner as arrogant as he could make it.

"And who the fucking hell are you?"

Sai gave Sasuke the smile that annoyed everyone, and Naruto felt his insides squirm with a mixture of apprehension and amusement. Just because Sai had joined the team after Sasuke had left didn't put Sai at a disadvantage, it put Sasuke at the disadvantage.

Sai knew all about this former team-mate, his temperament, and his relationships with other people, whilst Sasuke didn't know a thing about him. Sai's foothold with Sakura and Naruto was stronger than Sasuke's; although they were all apart of team seven in one way or another Sai had earned his right to become part of the team. He valued his place and his friendship with both Naruto and Sakura. He didn't posses Sasuke's confident ease with knowing that he's be accepted – wanted back no matter what. And Sai would fight Sasuke tooth and nail if he tried to compromise the team dynamics. If they were dysfunctional, how the hell would they make out of this situation alive?

Sai and Sasuke were similar in certain odd ways. Pale skin, jet-black hair, and angular eyes. But Sasuke was cold on purpose; he drove people away because he was afraid of letting anyone touch him ever again. The more you cared, the more it hurt afterwards, and only reluctantly…accidentally had he started caring about Naruto all over again and was doing his best to pretend he did not.

Sai on the other hand had had compassion and other human emotions beaten out of him. He had been the perfect tool, not caring whether or not he lived or died, and then he'd become part of team seven and all of that had changed. A lot of that was to do with Naruto.

In a funny way Sai was proud of Naruto, proud because he'd never met someone like him before, neither would he ever met someone quite like him ever again.

Naruto was a person who took most situations and stood them on their head. Naruto whom had fought the sand demon Gaara meaning to kill him but instead had forged a life long bond between them. Naruto whom had been hated as a child, shunned as a monster and now looked like he might be inline for the next Hokage after Kakashi of course (although Kakashi was still not sold to the idea preferring the idea of a nice quiet retirement thank you very much). Naruto who was compassionate, Naruto who loved far too much, Naruto who had defended his childhood friend over and over again from accusations long after he needed to. Sakura and Naruto had accepted Sai (although somewhat grudgingly at first) and they'd even tried to teach him manners.

_Bless them. _

But where Sai and Sasuke were similar was in the fact that they were both direct, and in the second Sai took to mull over his loyalties, the situation, Sasuke's general height and whether or not his ANBU Leaf ninja instincts considered him a real threat he finally answered.

"I'm your replacement, Sasuke Uchiha."

That had hurt, but Sasuke pretended it didn't. Instead it was much easier to bite back.

His eyes performed a smooth flick from Naruto to Sakura, seemingly speaking to her but really addressing Naruto in his muted wrath.

"And to think you and Sakura made such a big fuss about me leaving, and yet it obviously wasn't that difficult to find someone to assume my role."

"What were you expecting?" Naruto shouted, Sakura had hand on his arm now, but he was straining on it, leaning forwards glowering acridly at Sasuke.

"Were we supposed to hold auditions or something? You disappeared off the face of the planet; you didn't want to come back. I-_we_ tried to move on!"

"Sasuke," Sakura began evenly although she looked almost anything but calm, "Sai is part of team seven. It's different from when-"

"And you," Sasuke said venomously, rounding on her suddenly. "You and your words of love and pretty speeches that don't mean a damned thing. You're as bad as he is!"

"Just because you have a bruised ego doesn't mean you can take it out on Sakura!" Naruto spat out, moving himself in front of Sasuke's line of fire.

"Naruto, I don't need you to defend me." Sakura said quietly, but she had seen the twisted look of jealously that gathered across Sasuke's face as Naruto kept on, placing his solid weight in front of Sakura as if he thought Sasuke might leap forward and assault her.

"She doesn't deserve that."

"You're right, I should be saying it to you, but I wouldn't want to insult your girlfriend by saying it out loud, it might make her ears turn pink."

"As if anything you could say to me would shock either one of us. I think we've dealt with your hissy fits enough times in the past to know what we're getting ourselves into."

_// Mistake there – such reckless words. // _

They were standing close to each other now, a foot's distance apart at the most.

Naruto yelling, his blue eyes intense and sparking with anger and Sasuke's cool replies and dark smoky grey eyes. And it was in that moment then, when Sakura realized that Naruto had completely forgotten that she and Sai were even standing there. They were so absorbed in each other, as the blond gesticulated whilst asking 'who the hell Sasuke thought he was anyway' and Sasuke replying 'that he knew very well who he was but did Naruto'?

It was a weird, uncomfortable realization. As if she had come to realize something she had known all along, seen signs, remembered facts but had ignored them. Naruto had always focused all his attention on Sasuke when they had been children, why should she expect it to be any different now?

Between them there was too much too much virulent attraction. Half of Sasuke's soul was Naruto's and half of Naruto's soul was Sasuke's. It hurt too much to ignore it. Little stabbing bleeding wounds that sealed over with indignation hot seething duplicity.

Naruto had come to rescue her with Sasuke because he'd thought she needed rescuing, he'd put his life on the line for her, again, because he thought she needed him…and he loved her as and she loved him.

She needed him, she _wanted_ him…. and there was Sasuke arguing with Naruto, and Naruto arguing back because Sasuke was goading him.

Because if Sasuke lead him on, Naruto had no choice but to follow, but the look on Sasuke's face, that look of intense bitterness towards her….

That look scared Sakura because Naruto couldn't help to react to it; he was_reacting_ to it. And whether Naruto knew it, Sasuke was in love with him regardless of whether he liked it or not.

But Naruto felt himself committed to Sakura, despite the fact that he was also sexually attracted to his former best friend, and whilst he felt he was committed he wouldn't reciprocate, no matter how much he might want to. He wouldn't tell Sasuke that he loved him too because he'd be betraying Sakura and he'd rather die than do that. In everyway Sakura and Naruto were a perfect match for each other.

Naruto the knight in shining armour, Sakura the damsel in distress.

Naruto the lost wonderer ready to reinstate his family honour and slay the wicked where they stood, she was the one with the map ready to show him where they were.

He had the glass slipper and she had the right foot.

So how was it that they had missed each other? How had they come so close only to veer off in different directions at the last second?

And despite the fact that Sakura loved Naruto, perhaps if she hadn't been so stupid to have chased Sasuke when she was a child then this might have been a very different story. She might already be married to Naruto and would be able to discuss at length with him the names of what their unborn children might be.

But this wasn't that story, the relationships were as knotted and twisted over as a cats cradle, and nothing was going to be decided with her and Sai standing there getting dumbly in the way of everything. She gathered her nerve. What kept her calm was the strange assurance that Naruto had always loved her, and always would. He loved Sasuke too, just differently, in a way as intensely as she had loved Sasuke beyond all reason common sense years ago.

She licked her lips and excused herself and Sai from the room. Naruto turned round in horror, a look on his face indicating the fact that he thought he'd done something to upset her.

She smiled at him and shook her head.

In a funny way both Sai, Naruto and Sasuke were all her boys. All stubborn, pig headed and as stupid in some ways as a brick wall, someway, somehow this situation was going to resolve itself.

She would just have to wait and see how it did so.

* * *

"Look what you've done!" Naruto was hissing as Sakura walked out of the room signalling for Sai to follow her.

"You_**prat**_, just because you can't control your temper doesn't mean you can take it out on her!"

"If you're so concerned about her why don't you go on after her? I don't need to justify myself to you Naruto."

"You two were team-mates, we came all this way to rescue her. You could have at least controlled your temper and been civil, fuck-face."

"Yes, and she was also your girlfriend and almost fiancé, or have you forgotten that?"

"No, I have _not_ forgotten that. I was explaining-"

"Oh, you were explaining something." Sasuke folded his as if something ridiculously obvious had just come to light.

"Well that makes a whole lot of difference doesn't it? Because it's customary to _kiss_ when you're explaining something to someone."

"Look, we have a lot of history together and damnit Sasuke I love her, and I don't want her to get hurt when I do stupid things."

"Well in that case," Sasuke replied in tones so low and dangerous Naruto almost had to strain his ears to catch them.

"This is just about the stupidest thing you've ever _done_. Maybe if you leave now you'll still have a chance to patch things up again."

Naruto let out a phenomenal snort of laughter.

"Don't tempt me." He bit back, every bit as stubborn as Sasuke now.

"She's not the one having the temper tantrum."

"Why don't you take back your ring and propose to her like you were going to before?"

"And if you could calm down for just a fraction of a second and stop acting like a green eyed monster, maybe we could actually get somewhere without you acting so wet behind the ears!"

"How do you expect me to act?!" Sasuke found himself yelling back at Naruto, all self restraint gone in the face of just how unbearably angry he was. He thought he might explode from it, all the raw energy screaming inside of him. The need to cry, the need to yell, the need to thrust his fingers into Naruto's skull and peel out his eyes.

He felt as if someone was pressing a white-hot poker inside his chest and the liquid wrath was moving up and down inside of him with a slow burn like a cyclone.

"Why don't you just get married and get it over with?!"

"Is that what you'd like me to do? Do want me to get married to Sakura?"

"Yes, get married, be happy and fuck off so I never have to look at either of you ever again!"

Sasuke was still yelling, unable to explain exactly why those words hurt so much to say.

"You make no sense." Naruto told him finally, his voice settling back into its customary timbre.

"I'd wish upon you hundreds of fat children." Sasuke hissed petulantly; his eyes in slits and his hands clenched almost shaking by his sides.

"I'd hope you'd have an exceedingly boring life, and I'd wish she'd let herself go and so would you and you'd die a comfortable but boring death, from your _comfortable but boring life_!"

"Well thank you for plotting out my future for me." Naruto said with slow sarcasm, counting it out on his fingers.

"It's not exactly what I had in mind but if it makes you happy I guess it's the only thing I can do."

"Yes, yes it does!" Sasuke ground out vehemently feeling stupider by the minute but not really giving a damn. "And then I'd never have to look at you again."

"And why don't you want to look at me Sasuke?"

"Because…." He tried to get the words over the tip of his tongue but it caught short and swallowed itself, and he shook his head and took a step backwards.

The anger flickered away as quickly as it had come on, like a candle in the wind the flame was suddenly extinguished.

"It doesn't matter, this is stupid. I'll apologize to Sakura but not to that Sai guy, I don't like him."

"Sasuke," Naruto wasn't letting him go how had he come so close all of a sudden.

His fingers had caught hold of Sasuke's wrist and were burning into his skin. Why was a simple touch so erotic?

How could a signal look tear down his defences and leave him so open and so vulnerable?

He was so terrified of being laid out this open, so vulnerable and bare.

_// God, he was so lost…he was so lost…he was so lost. //_

"_Sasuke_." Naruto repeated.

Sasuke moved and seemed to feel Naruto's heart beating beneath his skin, the short sharp exhalation of breath, the blood rushing through arteries and veins.

It was a mistake; it was a terrible earth-shattering mistake because he wanted to fall onto Naruto's lips and kiss him senseless.

But he mustn't… _he mustn't_…

"What was it that actually made you angry?"

"You and Sakura."

"But Sasuke if you'd just let me explain, I was-"

"No, Naruto." Sasuke raised his hand to cup the side of the blond's face and rub his thumb across his lower lip, the movement was unhurried and firm, and the look on Naruto's face became raw.

"You see Naruto, if you'd never met me. You would have had a much simpler life; you wouldn't be stuck here, drawn between two people. Don't you see I've ruined everything?"

Naruto didn't speak for a moment; he had his eyes closed, breathing slowly, leaning into the pressure that Sasuke was creating on his cheek.

"And why, have you ruined everything Sasuke?"

Silence hung for a moment.

_// Didn't want to say it, couldn't say it, there was too much to lose, too much pride. // _

_// Swallow your tongue and refusal – finally let it out. // _

"Because I'm in love with you."

He'd picked a time to drop that one, Naruto didn't even have to look at him to know the expression on his face, to know what an effort that had cost him, to know what trouble the both of them were in. But the thing he hated the most was the fact that he couldn't say it back, couldn't because he wasn't sure himself, now wasn't the right time, he wasn't free, it wasn't that simple anymore.

Sasuke wanted to kiss Naruto, but he couldn't, _he wouldn't._

He couldn't keep making the first move over and over again. Naruto wasn't going to tell him he loved him back, he probably never would. And the knowledge of that was like a sharp, bitter slap in the face.

Sasuke took a step back, trying not to think of all the things he would have liked Naruto to say back to him. Things like "I'll be yours forever." Or "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth." and even "I love you too."

_// Impossible. // _

It wasn't to be and the awkward silence that flowed between them now was a tribute to the fact at how wildly incompatible they were. They were chalk and cheese, water and oil, a fish and a bird hopelessly in love with each other with no real chance of happiness between them.

Not now, not ever.

Sasuke wanted to cry, but couldn't, he could never cry again. He'd used up all his tears on the day that Itachi had stripped him of both his family and his morality.

_// Your broken and useless. // _

Naruto looked at him then and Sasuke thought how much he hated those blue eyes for looking right inside of him and yanking out his soul for inspection under that twinkling cornflower blue gaze. Naruto opened his mouth, searching for words that would make it all better, something that would cover up the hurt and stop Sasuke's heart from breaking. His tongue never got past the first syllable as someone appeared suddenly in the tunnel entrance, panting, cheeks flushed as if they'd just run a long distance.

"Naruto," they said their voice quaking slightly. "They've found Shikamaru's team, they've bought them below."

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

They swallowed, took a long breath and finished.

"Because Naruto, Kiba's dying."

* * *

By the time Naruto had made his way to the upper chambers that opened up from long tunnels to the surface he and Sasuke were the last to arrive at the scene. There was Yamato who was explaining something to Sakura whilst she was already on her knees, cutting through Kiba's chunnin jacket to get at something that had driven itself into his chest. Ino was standing by her, also a medic Nin, holding Kiba's head straight and keeping her fingers on his pulse.

"We've drugged him." Naruto could hear her saying, "Couldn't do anything else, he just sort of kept going insane."

Shikamaru was standing with his back to the wall, not talking to anyone, a peculiar resigned expression on his face as if he'd already decided on something long ago.

"What the hell happened?" Naruto exclaimed, the second they all came into sight, although Sasuke thought perhaps he already knew. Remembering the cold sharp metallic object that he'd dug out of Naruto's arm not so very long ago.

"Found them up top." Yamato explained with a wave of his hand that seemed to indicate everything, "Being stalked by one of the little ones. This one here has got it pretty bad." He jerked his thumb in Kiba's direction; Sakura was already stooping over him with tweezers, her face screwed up in concentration as she pulled something out of Kiba's chest.

Hinata let out a soft shrill scream; the object that Sakura had pulled out of Kiba's chest was horrifying to say the least. It looked like a small slender mechanical centipede with sharp needles for legs and two incisors on one end that looked like they were meant to worry into flesh in the same way that a person might dig a tunnel. The worst thing was that as Sakura pulled the thing out, dripping with blood and chunks of Kiba's flesh, was that it wriggled. All of it's many legs jerking and writhing at the same time in different directions as if trying to pull itself out of Sakura's grip.

"What the hell is that thing?" Naruto asked, pushing people out of the way as he ran towards where Kiba's body was lying against the ground.

Yamato put a steadying hand on his back that Naruto didn't really want to be there, he felt like his stomach had slipped out through his feet and fallen through the floor. He saw Sakura put the thing in a glass jar and screw the lid tightly back on it again. The thing inside threw itself against the sides of the glass, a horrible scratching, sliding noise emanating from it as it tried to scrape it's way out.

Sakura's face was very pale as she watched it scuttle around the glass, Shikamaru looked as if he was about to be sick.

"That thing was inside him?" Naruto yelled, both confused and horrified at the same time, he could hear Hinata holding onto her tears a little to the left and Neji beside her holding her hand.

"What the hell was it doing inside him?"

"Neji let it happen." Shikamaru said acidly, his arms firmly crossed and his face stony.

Naruto felt a flicker of tension spark across the room; Neji shifted uncomfortably but said nothing. His pale eyes fixed on Kiba's shallowly breathing body, lips pressed together in a straight line.

"Maru!" Ino berated him with a firm amount of sternness in her voice; Naruto noticed her hands were chapped and raw as if she'd burnt them on something quite recently.

Shikamaru changed the subject.

"Sakura seeing as you got that _thing_ out, will he be okay now? I mean, he'll stop acting like… he'll stop trying to kill us?"

Naruto's mouth flew open to demand an explanation to that particular sentence but Sasuke clapped a hand over his mouth and he fell silent.

"It might be too late for him." Yamato said slowly, a sad expression on his curiously handsome face.

Naruto's heart felt as though it had stopped beating, Shikamaru's face was very pale as he licked his lips and then slowly asked why.

"We've seen it happen before." Yamato explained, bending over and picking up the glass jar with the thing inside of it. "There's a vile of yellow green liquid inside these things, once they get inside you they start injecting this concoction into your system. They drive their way down to a main chakra circulation…this one was going for his heart as you can see. Anyway, this thing gets into your main chakra system and completely over runs you. There's no escape, the only kindness you can do to the person is kill them swiftly before they can hurt those that they love the most."

"How do you know this?"

It was Sakura asking now; although her voice was firm her hands shook, on the floor Kiba stirred a little as if trying to break through a haze of sleep. Every eye in the room flicked towards him with apprehension and uncertainty.

"Before you and Sai got here, they brought in a man whom had been infected with the drug for over twenty four hours. They pulled the thing out of him and thought that was that. They found him six hours later after he'd killed twelve people; he was sitting on a corpse acting as if everything was as right as rain. The people who become infected by these things, they lose their sense of what it is to be human."

"But…but…" It was Shikamaru speaking now.

"You said it only mattered if that thing got into the central chakra system located within the heart."

"Yes I did." Yamato shook his head sadly, contradicting his words.

"But too much of the toxin has been delivered into his blood stream. I could take months for its effects to wear off. We don't have that time or that luxury!"

"So what you're saying is, it's a matter of metabolism? We kill him because his metabolism won't run fast enough?"

Shikamaru seemed almost too angry to speak, his angular eyes were wide open and a look of serious distaste was running all along the curve of his mouth.

Kiba was his best friend…anything that happened to Kiba always felt like Shikamaru's fault.

Maybe he should have planned better, told Kiba not to do that. This whole scheme had been Shikamaru's plan and Kiba had gone with him because… because… oh what did it matter why Kiba had come?

He'd still come, gotten himself into this mess and was now facing slaughter just because his immune system could pull out the stops fast enough.

"Yes, he's a liability." Yamato continued.

"You don't know what it makes them capable of; I've seen it first hand. Killing him would be _**mercy**_."

Shikamaru looked like he was about to argue the definition of mercy when suddenly Sakura raised her hand.

"Wait – wait," she said, fingers running through her hair. An almost frantic expression on her face as if she'd just worked something out but was frightened the answer would slip away again before she got a good hold on it.

"If it's a problem of metabolism then surely we can fix it by just making his metabolism run faster, am I right? If we accelerate his system beyond its normal range it will burn the toxin right out of him. His antibodies will recognize the toxin as being foreign and attack it anyway. We just need to accelerate the process."

"How?" It was Lee asking this time.

Suddenly Naruto understood what she meant, and felt a rush of powerful affection for Sakura. She really was a brilliant medical ninja.

"Me right? You want me to jump start his motors for him, like hooking up a car battery?"

"That'll kill him!" This time it was Ino, her blonde hair in her eyes and trailing down her back, her pink mouth parted and the tip of her tongue pressed against the top of her teeth.

"Naruto's immune system from what I've seen of it is way too strong for someone in Kiba's condition to handle. There's a one in eighth chance he'd survive something like that, the higher probability being that he'll suffer massive internal bleeding and die in agony."

"He's just going to die anyway!" Sakura argued back. "I saw Tsunade-sama do it once and it worked. True it wasn't to this extent but what other choice do we have?"

"But he could suffer massive brain damage, what if you save his life but cripple him?"

"What other choice we have?" Now it was Naruto, his fingers were subconsciously clutching onto the fabric that made up Sasuke's sleeve.

"Chance this and maybe save his life, or kill him. I think Kiba would rather take the possibility than just lie there and be put down like an animal."

There was a silence, Sasuke felt Naruto shivering with apprehension beside him.

Choji spoke for the first time since they'd been brought down into the underground tunnels.

"Shikamaru should decide; he's team leader."

Shikamaru Nara didn't respond for a moment, he gave Choji one of his calculating dark looks and then closed his eyes and nodded.

Ino rolled up her sleeves, and Sakura started barking orders.

"I want everyone who doesn't absolutely have to be here to get out. Yamato take them down to the lower chambers, Shikamaru you stay, Naruto stay.

Sasuke and Sai look after everyone else, clean them up get them something to eat I think they're cooking down in the northeast chamber. I want them de-briefed in an hour Sai do I make myself clear?"

Everyone nodded, Hinata hesitated but Neji put his arm around her and lead her towards the exit, telling her she'd only get in the way. Naruto suddenly found himself not wanting Sasuke to leave, stupidly filled with the irrational panic that if he let Sasuke out of his range of vision he'd never see him again. But Sakura was talking again and Shikamaru was beside him looking both unsure of himself and a little lost and Naruto realized that he needed to act like everything was going to be fine even if it wasn't going to be.

"If Ino and myself can form protective barriers around his vital organs," Sakura was saying, tying her hair up behind her head. "Try and stem the damage to his liver, kidneys, heart, brain, we might have a chance of saving his life."

"Sakura, I'll take care of his heart, kidneys and liver. I'll leave the rest up to you."

"Are you ready Naruto?"

What the hell was that question anyway? Was he ready to perhaps kill one of his best friends? No of course he wasn't ready, he never would be completely ready for what was going to happen next but he didn't have a choice in the matter. Life rushed past him second by second without a pause or an idea of stopping. Naruto swallowed, Shikamaru's face looked as though all the blood had been drained out of it, he'd raised both hands to make that oval shape he used when he was concentrating on something very hard. He trusted Naruto with this; Naruto didn't want to let any of them down.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

He knelt on the ground by Kiba's body as Sakura instructed Naruto to place both of his hands over certain places on Kiba's chest. The Inuzuka still smelt the same, still smelled like Kiba, still breathed like Kiba, and he still looked like Kiba. Naruto's hands felt the dried blood beneath his skin and the erratic lub-dub of Kiba's heart, it was hard to believe he was about to do this, about twenty four hours ago the two of them had been teasing Shikamaru about his turbulent love life. Now Naruto might not ever be able to do that again, he didn't want to lose a friend.

Not here, not now.

Not ever.

"Kiba…" He found himself saying so quietly he couldn't hear himself speak, but felt his mouth move to make the word instead.

"Shikamaru I want you to hold him down." Sakura was saying in her chief of medicine voice. "The second that Naruto begins to pump chakra into him the drug you've used to sedate him is going to wear off in a matter of seconds. He's going to wake up and I don't know what mental condition he's going to be in. So Naruto,"

She turned her attention back to the Kitsune again. "If he starts screaming, keep going. Only stop when I tell you to."

He nodded, the feeling in his gut steadily becoming worse and worse.

"Alright then, on my mark…3, 2, 1 – Now Naruto!"

The next three and a half minutes contained possibly one of the most horrific experiences that Naruto had ever dealt with. The feeling can only possible be likened to falling off a steep cliff into dark uncertain depths without the aid of a parachute or anything to break ones fall as they hit the ground. Like the time Naruto had woken up to find himself hurtling down into an unending abyss towards certain death.

Sakura had been right, once Kiba had woken up he did in fact begin screaming, his whole body convulsed as if every fibre of his being had been set on fire. It probably did feel as though it had been set on fire, Naruto was forcing the chakra out of the bottom of his hands in such fine concentrated amounts it began to burn the skin on his palm. He could feel the cells in his body scuttling down towards the place of injury to heal the skin, only for the new layer of skin to be ripped off again, to be replaced again in a never ending circle.

Naruto could see his own chakra swirling around Kiba's body, healing the wound on his chest and pushing under the skin in little blue spark of light. He had to push deeper, unleashing some of the Kyuubi's chakra, which span and spiralled inside of him, less easy to control than normal chakra. It ran skittering down his fingertips in short sharp bursts, like waves of electrical energy.

Heal him, Naruto thought desperately as another wave of chakra pummelled through his system and dashed into Kiba's chest like the explosion of a firework making Kiba's eyes roll in his head.

_Heal him and please don't kill him!_

Kiba continued to scream like he was in agony; down below they could hear Akamaru howling as if to keep his master company in his misery. Then, all of a sudden Kiba stopped yelling. He went very quiet and didn't move.

"Oh shit." Ino exclaimed suddenly, and Naruto couldn't help himself, he wrenched his hands away from Kiba's chest as though he thought something was going to burst out of it.

"What is it, what's going on?"

Ino ignored him and talked only to Sakura, "I think he's going into cardiac arrest."

"What's going on, what does that mean?"

Oddly enough it was Shikamaru who spoke next, shadow Jutsu unbound a sort of distant quality to the sound of his voice as though he almost believed this whole scenario was a very unpleasant daydream.

"It means he's having a heart attack Naruto."

* * *

Naruto sat alone in a corner where he hoped nobody would find him; Shikamaru had gone down first to tell everybody what had happened. Naruto didn't want to have to face the others and explain what he'd done; he didn't think he could face Hinata with her gentle eyes and delicate mouth. Gloom and depression settled on him like the storm cloud he'd carted about with him when he'd been a small child, before Iruka had loved him, before team seven, before anything he could remember that had ever made him truly happy.

The cold stone pressed against his back, rubbing uncomfortably over the nubs in his spine, pressing hard against the back of his pelvis and digging into the muscles beneath his ribs.

It didn't matter, nothing mattered, and everything was horrible. This place, this situation – God Kiba… **Kiba**… he shouldn't have come. He was only trying to protect… and now look what had happened!

Naruto drew his knees up to his chest, resting his head against the top of his knees and rocking slowly backwards and forwards. It felt like a particularly spiky cactus had lodged itself at the top of his throat, just where the back of his tongue ended and his oesophagus began.

He was still shaking slightly from the post-adrenaline rush but unable to stand up and walk about or do anything useful. Had Sakura been there she would have told him he was in shock.

But Sakura wasn't there, she'd been called away with Ino by the elders to tend to the wounds of a group of ninja that had been attack by a lone Yokai and after pressing a kiss to his forehead and leaving him with a promise of coming back soon.

So he sat there alone, unable to cry but wanting to.

Wanting to so desperately that he felt the feeling swimming up his throat in a desperate attempt to break out in the open, he opened his mouth, closed his eyes, felt the red hot scraping feeling rasp against the inside of his throat but couldn't make a sound. He ran his fingers through his wirer like blond hair and hated himself from the tip of his head to the bottom of his feet.

"What are you doing?" A cool calm voice asked him suddenly, a pair of legs had suddenly appeared in front of him. A pair of legs and sandals, with Sasuke's feet nestled snugly inside the black leather, or at least it looked black in the semi-darkness, it might have been navy blue for all Naruto knew or cared.

Naruto didn't answer, and Sasuke didn't move.

He let the silence spiral for a while and then sat down next to the blond, shoulder to shoulder, bodies touching. A little line of fire building up and expanding outwards.

"He's alive you know, so I don't know why you're acting like it's the beginning or Armageddon. Although it probably is, but you've never let that get to you before."

Naruto let out a breath that flowed over the tip of his lips in volatile judders, "I damaged his heart Sasuke, I caused him to have a heart attack okay? Everything is not alright, I've just – I've just …"

"You were trying to save his life."

"I'm a monster." The word spilled out from over his lips before he could control it, a huge weight had come crashing down on his chest making it difficult to breath all of a sudden.

"I nearly killed him, I'm a monster."

Naruto felt the hot trickle of water slip down his right cheek and knew it to be salty; he felt the hiccups of misery build up inside of him fighting for a way out. He'd worked so hard for everything and now this. He couldn't run away from what he was, he could only stare at it in horror and realize that what he feared the most had always been a part of him. He felt a hand at the back of his neck and fingers tracing the nape of his neck in smooth circles. Sasuke leant to kiss him, a hot warm scrape of lips against lips and Naruto let his eyes close, not caring for the world or anything in it, opening up to Sasuke as he wound his arms around Sasuke's neck and pulled him to him as if he never meant to let go.

"You would have been a monster if you hadn't tried," Sasuke told him in a hot whisper against his ear as Naruto pulled him down so that their bodies were lined intimately together.

"You would have been a monster if you'd just let them kill him." Sasuke said again as he ran kisses across Naruto's jaw, his closed eyes, and the sides of his mouth and kissed the wet trail of tears on his right cheek.

Sasuke could feel the flutter of Naruto's eyelashes against the soft skin of neck as he moved his hands across Naruto's torso, fingers slipping under Naruto's clothes aching to feel and to touch.

Naruto gasped underneath him, stretched and yearned, opening up to Sasuke, wanting and asking for more. Drawing Sasuke's mouth against his own and kissing him deeply, fingers clawing at Sasuke Uchiha's dark hair, winding strands around his fingers and pulling them closer together as though they could never be apart.

"When you sacrifice everything to save a friend Naruto that doesn't make you a monster, it makes you human."

Sasuke meant every word of it and Naruto knew it, somewhere inside his chest he thought his heart was breaking, but he didn't say a word. He raised his pelvis allowing Sasuke to slip of his pants and let Sasuke enter him unprepared. He closed his eyes and hissed at the slow burn and the uncomfortable stretch but not caring about the pain as he wrapped his legs about Sasuke's waist and pulled him closer, as close as they could possibly be.

Make me feel human, he thought as Sasuke moved into him. His head against Naruto's shoulder, in and out, back and forth as Naruto moved with him, slowly achingly slowly. It hurt, it was uncomfortable but Naruto didn't care, he didn't care about anything except Sasuke and this moment, because Sasuke was so perfect, so beautiful, so amazing. He felt joined and healed, and loved, and wanted, and perfect, and amazing, and beautiful, and human, and normal and… and…_oh God he loved Sasuke. _

He loved him so much it was breaking him into – _don't stop don't ever stop_ – it was impossible. Everything about them was impossible, he could never say it, he could never say it back, and he could never mean it to that extent except he did. Oh god Sasuke, he meant it with everything inside his soul. _He wanted him, he needed him_ –_it felt __**good**_.

No, it felt perfect. They were perfect, he could feel it coiling up inside him, white-hot dashing forwards in blinding waves, little explosions of fire inside of him.

He came suddenly, which surprised him as he let out a short sharp "Oh!" his fingernails leaving bloody crescent marks in Sasuke's back, riding out the orgasm whilst Sasuke moved him in him until the clenching of Naruto's internal muscles drove him over the edge finally. He lay next to Naruto, his nose pressed against the blond's collar bone as Naruto curled against him, fingers still in Sasuke's hair, the tips of his fingers just below Sasuke's right ear, stroking the skin there gently, trying to think of words to express himself with.

"Sasuke…I…" Naruto began; he kept his eyes locked rigidly on the rock face before him.

The Uchiha looked up at him, his expression less curious and more knowing.

"It's okay." He said softly, "you don't have to say it."

"No, you don't understand I…"

Sasuke propped himself up.

His hair was messy, his lips flushed from where Naruto had kissed him and worried at the flesh with his teeth. He put his other hand next to Naruto's head so he was leaning over him, looking down into Naruto's bottomless cornflower blue eyes and realizing it was far too late to back out from this now.

"I already know."

And he loved him again, and again and again.

* * *

Love it? Hate it? I DIDN'T KILL KIBA DID I? HA-HA-HA FOR MAKING ALL YOU GUYS WORRY:'D there will be mental trauma in the next chapter as well as terrifying closeness to the end of part one. Nearly there guys, I love how no one has accurately guess what's going to happen yet, and I keep getting PMs from people who have read my profile and realized the horrifying little quote I have under the FAQ no. 5

I'm going to keep you guessing, I've actually already laid down the parts to part 2, it's just up for you to spot them.

Review if you'd like, it's my birthday soon. Again... xD I can't believe I've been writing this thing for a whole year...

Love

TED


	19. End of Days part one: Run

Fish Bird 

By The Eternity Dragon

**Disclaimer**: I still believe Itachi has personality and depth in character. Yes I am in denial. 

**A/N**: this chapter is done in two parts because it's the ending of part one of Fish Bird and I felt you guys needed something to nibble on whilst I get the other half of this finished. Forgive it for being short, but it's too the point I shall see if I can come up with the rest of the plot this week.

Chapter 19: End of Days Part One: Run

* * *

"What if you were wrong, Sasuke?" She asked while she leaned closer, those eyes changing from black to green and then back to black again.

"What if there was more to your brother's story than you allowed him to tell you?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke spat, hate dripping from his tongue and water sliding down his hair.

"Just shut up, it's too late now anyway. He's dead – murdered even – just like he murdered our parents!"

Her smile stretched so wide over her teeth that it became truly terrifying, Sasuke instinctively moved over Naruto's body, fingers coiling into the material of his collar, Naruto's unfocused blue eyes staring into the back of his head.

"What if I could summon the dead Sasuke? What if you could talk to him again?"

Naruto's cold bloody fingertips brushed gently against the pale skin of Sasuke's wrist and he tried to make a noise. Above him, in the blur and mist of his conscious and through the fog like pain, he felt Sasuke stir over him and open his mouth to answer.

* * *

_A few hours earlier_

"How is he?" Sakura asked, her hair swept up into a high ponytail. Her hands were dirty from the cave in she'd just been helping to clear out and the underneath of her fingernails was bloody and throbbing from the tiny rocks that had wedged themselves into the soft under skin of the nail.

Ino made a pained face. In the past week and a half they had been all stuck down in the caves together she had cut her hair, but she looked much the same really. Well, apart from the fact that her skin was both dirtier and a little paler then it had been a week before, but she seemed to be holding up well. Better than Shikamaru anyway, who kept driving himself to distraction over her health and how many shifts people were giving her. He reprimanded a junior ninja to the point of tears the other day when he had discovered Ino had lead a team to the surface in the daily collection of water. Ino had yanked him by the ear after Sai had tattled on Shikamaru to her and Shikamaru had denied all accusations about winding himself up, or anyone else for that matter, claiming that he was just acting on common sense, which everyone else seemed to be lacking and seeing the state that Ino was in-… Which had of course spiked another argument as to whether or not Ino was perfectly capable of looking after herself and an unborn baby.

Despite the fact that Ino's shrill tones had started at least twelve migraines and had caused several other people to take up the unfortunate habit of gnashing their teeth, no one had had the heart to interrupt either of them. 

Shikamaru's increasingly short temper, moody looks, and sullen replies were all based on the fact that Kiba, despite waking up out of what Sakura had called 'a comatose state' three days before, had not spoken a word to anyone. 

It wasn't just that he wasn't speaking though; a Kiba just wasn't a Kiba unless he was making bizarre, inappropriate, and sometimes-vulgar small talk. That uncomfortable or overly animated attitude was something that Shikamaru would have welcomed with open arms. But this time it wasn't a comical farce of Kiba temporarily losing his voice and making amusing hand gestures to try and represent his mood. 

When Naruto had tried to touch him he had recoiled, rejecting both Naruto's empathetic movements and reassuring tone of voice; he'd simply sat in the corner knees drawn up to his chest, seemingly looking right into Naruto's fathomless blue eyes and seeing nothing. 

Naruto had tried for a full four hours to get a response out of Kiba before Sakura had finally led him away, only to have Naruto break down on her shoulder the second they were both out of earshot. 

"Is there neurological damage?" Sasuke had asked whilst Naruto had sat mutely between them, his fingers pressed against his eyes as the flickering light of the lantern danced against the hollows of his face and cast dancing shadows over all three of them. The silence between them pressed down on them as the sleeping forms of the other inhabitants breathing on all sides of them and the slow and steady scrape of feet against rock echoed throughout the cave as the sentries outside patrolled up and down the tunnels. 

"I have no idea." Sakura replied truthfully with a considerate glance towards Naruto. 

"His reactions to me seem to signify trauma instead of physical brain damage. He seems perfectly aware of where he is, and what he's doing here, but it's coming to terms with what he's done that seems to be the problem. Look at his reaction to Shikamaru – he won't even look at him."

"But it wasn't his fault!" Naruto insisted violently through his teeth, bringing his hands away from his face and staring at Sakura adamantly. 

"You said so yourself – it was more like – more like …" 

He made a motion with his arms and then shot Sasuke a hopeless look.

"I said it sounded more like a cerebral invasion." Her voice was soft and she spoke to her hands, purposely ignoring the look that Sasuke was giving Naruto; the heavy intense gaze that she couldn't possibly ignore the meaning of.

"It didn't just confuse him; from what Shikamaru and Ino described it changed his pattern of behaviour. I've never heard of Kiba brutally killing adversaries, or if he has done, he certainly doesn't enjoy doing it. It's not something I've seen him take active pleasure in, not like…" she struggled with the word for a moment before trying to spit it out. 

"Not like …."

"Not like Gaara did." Naruto finished for her, his lips drawn up in a humourless smile. 

"You make him sound like he's been possessed."

"I don't think it's above consideration." Sakura said simply, her eyes darting up from her hands. She addressed Sasuke this time with a slight defiant strike of her chin.

"I know Orochimaru specialized in possession Jutsus, so I'd expect you to know more about this subject than I do."

Sasuke's eyes left Naruto's for a moment, and something in his expression becoming both cold and unfathomable as he answered her.

"Basing it purely and solely on the fact that these Things seem to attack their victims with a small metal dart filled with a chemical that is then injected into the system, I'd say it was probably a DNA based possession. Perhaps the whole aim of the attack is to make the victim just like the attacker, thus multiplying their numbers. Kiba had that thing in longer than anyone else and you messily cleaned out his system by pumping large amounts of unstable chakra into it, which in the end caused him to have a heart attack. There's no possible way you could have eradicated all of it from his system without equipment and help; what he's dealing with now is probably some very nasty after effects which I wouldn't doubt would be too far off hearing voices in his head."

"Well, what do we do?" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet as if filled with the sudden conviction to save the world right there and then.

"Nothing," was Sasuke's acrid reply with an icy rise of his eyebrows. "There's nothing to be done. He'll either conquer it or it'll kill him."

"So you're suggesting we do nothing?" Naruto said, a surge of confrontation in his voice as Sakura pulled on his hand and he obligingly sat back down next to her again. 

"We do absolutely fuck all?"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting." Sasuke shot back smoothly.

"You're an asshole."

"And don't you love it?"

Naruto opened his mouth to respond but stopped, his tongue about to form words and his brain reprimanding him mid flirt to stop it right now. Sakura gazed at the both of them, her expression both curious and relaxed. 

It wasn't difficult to imagine what happened when Sasuke demanded Sai give both himself and Naruto patrolling shifts together. Neither was she surprised by the flushed red look of Naruto's mouth or of the less composed air that Sasuke brought back with him afterwards. 

Six months ago, before all this _madness,_ she wouldn't have been able to cope with or even fathom the width and the breadth of the feelings for both her and Sasuke that ran through Naruto's heart simultaneously in perfect alignment with each other. It was Naruto she could count on to massage her feet after they had spent a good six hours or more scaling the rock faces and trying to determine the pattern of the demon movement within the mountain, how many were massing the attack, where did they sleep, did they breed, from whom did they receive their orders from?

It was Naruto she could count on in a tight squeeze. They knew each other's moves so perfectly and fluidly that everything between them looked like a practised dance. It was Naruto who would lie next to here whilst they were both drifting to sleep, hold her hand, and talk until the sound of his voice sent her into oblivion. 

It was her he had turned to, fierce and loyal, when they had been ambushed that time; when two of their team had been injured and one killed. He had taken her back, not talked to anyone, dressed her wounds, and then sat still (something she'd not even dared to imagine he was capable of) whilst she took care of his and had then kissed her fiercely and lovingly all over until he was sure of the fact that she wasn't dead or dying in his arms, but was very much alive.

She knew he loved Sasuke, but she knew he loved her. She was his first everything, and was the stability that kept the earth revolving around the sun, and Sasuke was the stars in the sky—breathtaking, innumerable and everywhere just out of reach. They weren't together, she and Naruto, in the same way that he and Sasuke were together now. They were just a part of each other, the same machine; different segments all working together in the same period of time. She couldn't stop loving Naruto, in the same way that Naruto couldn't stop loving her; despite the fact that this arrangement could not last. The fact was that at some point they would have to draw back and examine it and one of them would have to make a choice, because life doesn't work for the convenience of other people. It exists for the convenience of itself.

So when Sasuke leaned across to kiss Naruto, Naruto allowed Sasuke's lips to graze across his jaw, not knowing if Sakura understood or perhaps hated him for it. His eyes twisted across to meet Sakura's, only to find her expression soft and accepting of it. He let Sasuke kiss him on the mouth, fully and darkly, Sasuke's tongue moving deep inside Naruto's mouth and then biting down on his lower lip as he broke the kiss. 

She wasn't going to tell him she had come across he and Sasuke having sex the other day (or was it night? All time seemed the same down there) down one of the back tunnels, doing it standing up with Naruto's fingers in Sasuke's hair as the Uchiha had sucked him off. She'd never forget the look on Naruto's face with his head thrown back, arm limp by his side, hand clenching and unclenching. There had been no guilt in his expression as he had leaned against the rock face, so lean and so loose. Sakura had walked away, not so much with anger, but with the knowledge of what Sasuke and Naruto were to each other – the other side of the same coin.

So when Ino had told Sakura that Kiba was in much the same condition he had been in the day before that, and the day before that too, she had let it go. She's simply asked if Shikamaru wanted a quick break from watching Kiba, because she'd happily look after him herself.

As it turned out, although Shikamaru had been looking both self-composed and as if he had woken up from a long nap, he had dark circles beneath both of his eyes. He had denied the need for a change of pace, and it was only when Ino had threatened to make him do something strenuous that he had reluctantly agreed to move and leave Kiba underneath Sakura's more than competent supervision. 

"He'll be alright." Ino had told him confidently as she walked him to the outer tunnels so he could take up guard duty. 

"There's no guarantee," Shikamaru had responded not solemnly, but with conviction. "He might be like that for the rest of his life." 

He had raised his hand to knead at his forehead and then had realized that his skin and clothes had smelt vaguely of Ino, and could taste her on the back of his tongue. His stomach had given an uncomfortable twist and his heartbeat had increased with sudden unpleasant thumps. 

He had leant back against the wall, his fingers moving to a secret pocket where he kept the emergency supply of cigarettes. 

"You should go," he'd told her, "I need to calm down for a minute. Mothers-to-be shouldn't inhale cigarette smoke."

"Fathers-to-be," Ino had snapped sternly, wrenching the offending item from between Shikamaru's fingers, "shouldn't participate in filthy habits."

And they had begun to row again.

* * *

Sasuke wasn't sleeping … or at least, he was, but it was a restless sleep filled with images and nightmares that only seemed to exhaust him more every time he closed his eyes. People were whispering in his ear, people he knew to be dead and dying; a plague of fallen angles, death, decay, mutilation, and putrefaction was running rife like dead leaves caught in a bitter winter wind. But most of all he saw _her_; her in that plain shapeless white dress, pale skin—like that of the recently dead, and all that dark hair. 

Hair that floated and seemed to shudder and convulse as though it was underwater, and all the time as she would stand there, watching him, laughing at him, beckoning him closer; and in the drugged like state of his dream he'd walk towards her. Not so much out of choice, but by necessity the reality being that there was nothing else he could do. 

"Sasuke…" she seemed to say, opening that dark slit of a mouth, flirting, smiling, wanting, and crowing…

"Did you know…" and then lean forward to whisper something so terrible that Sasuke would jerk awake drenched in cold sweat, the ringing of her words in his ear. 

He was starting to see her out of the corner of his eye now; the fleeting impressions of her like the footsteps of a ghost. She would be in the reflection of someone's eye, and there was something reminiscent of her expression in the way Sai curled his mouth up at the corners when he was mocking someone. There would be something that reminded him of her hair in the thick dark locks of Hinata's hair that trailed down the small of her back as she stooped to pick up a pile of kunai from the floor.

Sasuke thought he was slowly going mad. He tried anything—everything to occupy himself from seeing her and sensing her presence all around him.

Naruto seemed to block her out the almost completely, even if it was only for a while. It was with Naruto that Sasuke had always found the greatest relief. It was easiest to just bury himself in Naruto, until someone or something brought them back to reality again. Naruto seemed to be able to make Sasuke focus on what was now, rather then what had been – or what could be – or what Sasuke had done. So Sasuke could ignore for a few fleeting moments what _she_ really wanted, what _she_ had always wanted, and what he had mistakenly given _her_ in his own arrogance and stupidity. 

How he, Sasuke Uchiha, had doomed them all. 

The situation could not go on like this. People were dying, their own scouts telling them how the demons were massing, ready to attack Konoha; how they were breeding, how there seemed to be an endless amount of them. It was only a matter of time, time that flew like sand through an hourglass towards a merciless oblivion. Yamato and Shikamaru were already proposing a plan to bring the mountain down and collapse it all on top of the demons, but Sasuke knew that wasn't going to work. 

_She_ wouldn't let them; _she'd_ have her revenge and then some, punishing them all for participating in _her_ defeat, by who ever hands it had been, and reap the world with _her_ hatred.

Twelve hours ago he'd come to a decision after Sakura had shook him awake from the clutches of another nightmare where he had been drenched in blood and standing over Naruto's dead body, his shoulders shaking with laughter. He had rambled on in the incoherency left over by a sudden arousal, muttering about the fate of the world, his mistake, his consequences, his ego, his damnation, and how he'd plunged his fingers into someone's (Naruto's) chest and was in the process of ripping out their heart.

Sakura had slapped him hard across the face at this; her green eyes alight with a determined passion and hissed quietly at Sasuke that if he hurt Naruto again she would hunt him down and kill him herself. Sasuke had stared at her, not so much shocked that she had hit him, he was hardly aware of the pain in the side of his face and not prudent to the knowledge that a fraction lower and slightly more force she would have broken his jaw. He stared at her in realization of the pain he was causing, the pain he had caused all because he had walked back into Naruto's life and turned it on its head all for his own selfish ego, desires, and wants. 

The dividing line between reality and fantasy – this could not go on.

Sasuke made up his mind there and then on the spot to fix it himself; no help from anyone else, he had started all of this – it would be him alone to end it. He had the image in his head of what she wanted, what she was. She needed a human sacrifice, human blood, and human willingness from another creature because she wasn't part of the living herself. Her ghost or soul, whatever you'd care to call it trapped within a young girl's body. 

"Unnatural fire of the possessed" his father had once told him, "can be seen in the eyes and in the mouth of the body."

Sasuke hadn't looked and neither had he wanted to see it, but when he closed his eyes now all he could see where her own ethereal green irises slipping from green to black and then back to green again, staring into his own, and that smile, that wraithlike smile…that was everywhere. 

Sasuke had the notion he should tell Naruto, the clenching of guilt in his gut told him he should also tell Sakura. But Sasuke was very good at shrugging off responsibility to others once he set his mind to it. The wheels in his brain turning and pacing at a meticulous rate, calculating everything from the weakest point of their patrols to the times when Sai, Yamato and Shikamaru where less likely to pay attention to his movements. 

Part of him felt like he was going mad, that the dreams had somehow crawled into his head and were slowly depriving him of all-rational thought, and yet the other half argued that he was saner then he had been in years. 

The same sort of hot headed surge of determination that had let him walk right out of Konoha and straight into Sound. This was just another Orochimaru – and yet it wasn't, it wasn't because he had put so much more on the line this time. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain. 

He had to – he had to leave Naruto before his relationship with Sakura became irretrievably broken, he could already see the cracks in the seams when he got up close. He wasn't like Sakura, he couldn't share, he dugs his fingers into Naruto's skin hoping to leave bruises and marks of his territory when all Sakura did was shower him with light kisses. 

He was sick, he was insane, he needed to leave and do what he'd meant to do from the very beginning of all of this. 

Before Naruto had discovered his unconscious body in the woods, before he'd called Naruto a monster, before they'd eaten Ramen together, before Naruto had made him laugh, before he'd kissed Naruto …

And before … oh god how soon before he had fallen in love with him.

_/ Stupid, arrogant mistake! How can you afford to love/_

He made his plans, checked his options, requested one last patrol guard with Naruto from Sai. There was one last kiss, one last touch, one last fuck, one last confession of love, and then another kiss – that was the last one – and then another – no that was the last one – and then Naruto his hair sticking to his temples pressed his mouth against Sasuke's in such a way that seemed to join them together for an eternity. Sasuke broke away, resting the bridge of his nose against Naruto's neck.

No, that was their _last_ kiss. 

Sasuke should have realized nothing with Naruto ever went as planned. He took the ring off his neck whilst Naruto was sleeping and put it in his backpack and then took a double patrol shift with Neji claiming to Sai he didn't require more than four hours of sleep. Sai had looked at him in a way, which made Sasuke believe the Shinobi didn't believe him in the slightest but wouldn't be dreadfully upset if Sasuke ended up as dinner to an especially voracious demon and allowing him the patrol guard. 

Neji soon found out that Sasuke knew all about that blind spot at the back of his head, when mid sentence the Uchiha had lashed out and hit him there causing Neji to sink into subconscious with a blurry and yet fleeting image of Sasuke running off alone and into the dark.

* * *

A/N: Shoot maim kill, I know. 

**Sorry TED why the hell did you take so long to update? **

Because my computer was stolen and I became obsessed with Torchwood. 

**Torchwood?**

Yes, Torchwood. I went in for the porn and because I have a _slight_ John Barrowman infatuation (as well as Doctor Who) and stayed around because I actually like the plot. Don't believe me? Go youtube: Torchwood the kiss or Torchwood Jack Ianto. 

You'll see what I mean. 

**Do I support recent Naruto subplots? Namely to do with some certain Uchiha's and strange bodily fetishes? **

No, I do**not**. 

**Are you pissed at the manga?**

Very much so!

**Do you promise to finish off this cliff-hanger sometime this week?**

I solemnly promise to do my best, I just need to sort out some kinks in the plot or I would have written it all in one go.

**Are you going to make an FST for the first half of Fish Bird at the end of it? **

I most certainly am.

**Does the ending of this chapter sum up what will happen in the next chapter?**

No one has accurately guessed the plot for Fish Bird yet – things are not always what they seem to be.

Love TED


	20. I don't care what you think

Fish Bird (魚鳥）

By The Eternity Dragon/AcaciaBrown

**Disclaimer**: The manga confuses me and I miss Kakashi D:

**Chapter 20**: I don't care what you think, as long as it's about me

Part One ~ The beginning of the End

* * *

Inch by inch and mile-by-mile he ran, down twisting passageways and tunnels that seemed to slide sinuously down into the very heart of the mountain. He knew where he was going in the way that a dreamer tumbles down dark avenues that call to every fiber of their being. It was an unknown and unfathomable homing signal boiling through his blood and dragging his limbs forward over the ice-cold rocks, a magnetic beacon, or a genetic memory driving him towards a dark purpose.

It felt as if she had taken the breath from him and with it, what was left of his humanity. He was becoming less human, more ghost like, the essence of his soul slowly leaking through his mouth like moist breath and seeping down into the ground beneath him.

He'd crawled for what felt like hours through tunnels so narrow that they crushed his lungs and starved him of oxygen, his fingers where bleeding by the end of it, bare and stubby as he lay on the pitch black of the floor of a huge cavern, panting like a dog. The fine dust disturbed by his labored breathing swirled and danced on the eddies of his warm breath and raced away into the darkness.

The demons had surrounded him now. They had been with him the entire way down, he knew that much, perhaps they had even been with him _always_. Lurking in the corner of his eye always just out of reach, or prowling in the back of his mind, like an unseen monster he had no way of telling. All he knew now was that he was no longer afraid of them, no longer terrified of what must be done, no longer frightened of saving them, and sealing _for the last time_ his own doom.

"You're early." She said, her voice cold and hard like stone.

In the pale illumination of his own chakra he could see the wraithlike outline of her person, her slim legs and long, long hair. Her hands stretched out towards him like spiders, fingers gliding over his body and cupping his chin to tilt his face towards her like that of a submissive animal… a _pet_ even. She smiled at him, an expression that conveyed both cruelty and greed and he shivered, helpless like a fish out of water, whilst all around them the demons leaned in hungry for blood.

"I knew you'd come," she said smugly, "they always do come in the end."

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, talking was an effort now, thinking even more so. His limbs felt heavy as though each were filled with lead. But he had just enough strength in him to ask, "Who else has come to you before?"

He could feel her probing inside his mind, as if her spindly fingers had slipped through his skin like hypodermic needles and were slicing apart his mind, layer by layer like an onion.

"Oh, hundreds, thousands maybe. Men, women, fathers, daughters, wives, sons and lovers." Her grin stretched wider and he felt sure she was lying, shuddering as he felt her fingers move round to clasp the width of his neck.

"Your brother even."

Sasuke struggled to sit up at this, but it was as if all the breath had been wrung out of him, he lay silently on the floor like a dying rabbit. His heart racing impossibly fast as if it was about to take flight as she shifted through his memories like flour falling through a sieve. Nothing was sacred to her and _nothing_ was private.

His most intimate thoughts and memories were laid open, naked and bare for her inspection and the collective audience of demons behind her. Her and their thoughts merging as one, as the hive mind joins the queen and thinks through her, when she laughed they laughed, and to Sasuke's horror he could feel their laughter rolling through his mind as if they were somehow linked.

"Now you listen," she mocked, tucking a strand of jet-black hair behind the white shell of her ear.

"You listen because there is an Uchiha involved, and not just any Uchiha, your dear brother."

"He murdered…" Sasuke tried to spit out, the words forming in his throat but being swallowed back down again by a will that was stronger than his.

"Yes, **yes** I think _everyone_ knows that pathetic little story." She snapped, but her eyes dark as long empty tunnels seemed amused by attempts to defy her force.

"You came to me so you could destroy your brother, the man who had destroyed _your world_. Your wrath and pledge to total vengeance was so strong, so utterly soul destroying and overpowering… it never occurred to you that what you were doing was in fact the very thing he had spent his whole life trying to protect _you_ and all of _your_ world from."

The silence seemed to spiral sickeningly, Sasuke breathed out, although there seemed to be no breath in his lungs. His skin feeling oddly clammy and wet, although he knew he couldn't possibly be sweating, whilst all around him nothing stirred.

"W-what do you mean he … **you're lying**!" he finished, somehow summoning enough energy to get to his feet, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a yell.

She gazed at him, her eyes wide looking somewhat surprised, her mouth open like an old fat spider deprived of its prey. Around her the monsters hissed, drawing back like snakes about to make the kill, Sasuke didn't even flinch. Hopelessly outnumbered he looked death straight in the face and had the audacity to _glower_ at it.

"This is actually a rare moment when I'm _not_." She answered smugly, her white teeth glinting at him from the out the gloom, like pale bones beneath a film of ice-cold water.

"Have you spent your entire life thinking that the only enemies where the ones that attacked the village from the outside? Did you honestly think that the members of your _grand_ council know nothing of my existence? Do you honestly think that the Biju where a _mistake_?"

She laughed at him, a sound that seemed to shake the earth and rattle the inside of his bone marrow. The whole world felt as though it was about to collapse in on itself and that nothing could save it, for nothing could stop _her_.

"What _am I_ Sasuke?" she asked, half a flirt, half a threat, spoken like a secret.

He didn't answer, he backed away until he felt the smooth, cold, unyielding press of rock against his back, and knew he could move no further.

She said it again, "What am I, Sasuke?"

He opened his mouth, and then shut it.

"I…I don't know." He admitted, hating himself for what he'd done, knowing there was so much to give up but he no longer had a choice.

"I am Death," she told him, the words flowing so smoothly that they almost became a song.

"I am the bones that will not die and I am the yellow river. I am timeless, I am ageless, and I am not of this world. I am a demon, I am the mother of all that is unholy you see before you, and from my own essence have they cut from me my children. And in their turn made monsters of their own children whom they chose to be their vessels."

Her mouth was hard and cruel as she stared at him; a lock of hair slipped away from her scalp and fell to the floor with a soft 'thulmp' and Sasuke's gut twisted in horror as he realized she was rotting.

Right now, right this very _second_ her stolen body was decomposing, her skin was sallowing and her flesh was beginning to decay.

"You love him," she snarled scathingly, "and he is in part my _child_."

"No…" He wanted the nightmare to end, for this to go away. It was too much, too real, too raw…

"Did you think the Biju were accidents? You never stopped and wondered that maybe the powers at hand created them and tried to tame them? You never once thought that perhaps your 'friend' was born to become a monster? That they had assigned him a life of pain and cruelty before he had taken his first breath? Don't under estimate humans Sasuke, what I have become, is what they have **made me**."

"What you have become," he growled back in response, nausea permeating through seemingly every cell in his body, "is what you have made yourself through your own actions. You are a rotting, walking, talking corpse with no heart and no remorse for others!"

"Itachi spent his life trying to protect you," she told him, grinning wildly now. "If you ever had a heart you have killed it yourself with your own bare hands. You have spent your whole life trying to solve the puzzle of what really happened that night, and not even _once_ have you come close to solving it. You think it all revolves around you Sasuke, but it never has done, this has never been _about_ you, this… this greater world that He and I envision involves what he cannot give me but you can. Itachi fought against our future but no longer is he here to stand in my way, and you will give me freely what you are holding back… even now between death and hell. You are quite remarkable Sasuke, Madara did always think so too…."

"Madara…" for the first time he looked unsure, "Madara is dead. He's been dead for over hundreds of…" but even as he spoke he could feel his words falling into a pit of nothingness. Words like 'death', 'time' and 'end' had no meaning down here.

He watched her smile gleefully at him, "Of course he is."

"He isn't?"

She shook her head, and waved her finger like a mother berating a naughty child.

"Now Sasuke, I don't want to spoil the ending of this grand plan, now do I?"

"This is not a game, damnit!" he shouted, the feeling of something thick and heavy pressing against his jugular but he struggled against it. "People are dying because of you!"

"People are dying because of **you**! You're the one that set all of this into action, every innocent death has been on your hands Sasuke, you are also the one that is drenched in blood, not just me." She poke it calmly but her eyes betrayed the voracity of her wrath, like an endless desert starved of water she stared intensely at him, as if to drink in his soul through her eyes.

"Well I'm here now," he had everything to lose and nothing to gain. Something he had to offer she wanted, had been scheming to obtain from the very beginning, from the second he'd made the deal, to the moment he'd seen Naruto again and to what seemed like the endless years they had spent in the tunnels together.

"Take what you need and leave them alone."

"I can't, you won't give it to me…" her gaze never wavered, all around her was the clicking and rustling of the inhuman creatures that lurked as shadows in the darkness.

"I'm **here **aren't I?" he thrust his hands out towards her, all cool anger, stony defiance and unfaltering grace. "I'm _here_, I'm _willing_, what more do you require?"

She tossed her dark watery hair and let the smile slip like black silk from her lips. "Something which, at the moment you cannot give me."

"I don't…" he began, but she raised a hand, and the sound vanished from this throat.

"You will, be sure of that my darling. But we need to wait for him to come first."

* * *

Kiba stood up.

He did so silently, so not to wake Hinata who curled up close to him. She was supposed to be on guard duty, but the never-ending hours had (like with everyone else) eventually taken their toll on her.

Even in the somber darkness of the cavern he could still make out the delicate contours of her features. Her long beautiful blue-black hair splayed out on the ground beneath her like a rich inky sky, and her full mouth drawn into a plump pout.

He loved her; there was no arguing about that. He loved her powerfully, and totally in a way, which overcame his senses and spun him about to the wind. He'd never been able to tell her, and he never _would_ tell her.

He had kissed her before when they were teenagers, young, stupid and flooded with hormones. He had been rough back then, (and was probably still rough now if he'd care to ask for Shikamaru's opinion) full of burning desire to explore her pale white skin and slip his fingers between her parted legs and touch the secret parts of her. It had always under the cover of night or after a mission. Just so he could listen to her voice rise and fall in a steady rhythm as her body, hot, slim and so wonderful writhed beneath him. It had meant nothing, or at least at the time these where the words that he had repeated to himself over and over again. When he had kissed Hinata and moved up against her hard, it was nothing more than feelings created by an ancient calling, older than the hills and the mountains, written into his and her DNA. He'd seen animals do it, cats and dogs, a smooth in and out motion, several times over that seemed more instinct than science.

Kiba had thought/dwelt/obsessed about _doing it_. When they were lying together surrounded by darkness in the early hours of the morning, the temptation had almost been overwhelming, despite the fact that their bones ached from training.

Her body lying next to his was always a thousand times more rewarding than his own hand on his own skin, her mouth against his jugular making his heart skip and beat and his senses scatter.

Despite her own shyness, her awkward virginal movements, and her stammered expulsions of apology when their legs became entangled in awkward places, and their elbows knocked together bruising his ribs he hadn't cared.

He'd been full of the site and smell of her, the touch of her hair beneath his fingertips and the taste of her body on the tip of his tongue.

He'd been in love with her since the age of fifteen, or at least he had been fifteen when he'd finally realized it, like a sledgehammer to the head or a capsizing ship.

It was too late to take back what was already done, what they had done, what they had wanted to do _together_. Perhaps it had been her way of defying the bourgeoisie role that society and her family had thrust upon her that had made her sit outside his bedroom window that night. Perhaps Kurenai had been on one too many missions that week and she had turned to him as an escape from loneliness of solitude. Or perhaps, she had loved him too.

At the end of it all the temptation had been too great, his common sense had been smothered by her lips, her breasts, her legs, her thighs and eventually he had touched that secret place and become a part of it, warm and wet, soft and silky, terrifying and breathtaking all at the same time.

He hadn't been very good that first time, he had declined all expectation and hurt her by going too fast and then too hard. But it had been raw – earnest even. His large, rough hands cradling her ass and the small of her back as he'd shuddered from release, gasping for air and kissing her as if he was about to die. She had lain in his arms after that, entwined about him, her legs like thick warm vines and her smile like the sun. He – Kiba had been embarrassed, being so sure of himself and falling so short of what he had wanted to achieve.

She had been proclaimed engaged the month after, and he never knew whether or not she had known that all along or not. Sweet sixteen is of course a wonderful age to have ones heart broken at.

Out of honor, respect for Neji, and the age-old tradition of keeping the Hyuuga bloodlines _clean _the physical intimacies between them had ceased, and he had told no one.

It couldn't be helped that he was of a mongrel breed, his forefathers and ancestors bringing their culture to whomever they mated with and sticking with them for life. Even his mother, had never once looked at another man, despite the fact that her own mate had been cold in his grave since the attack of the nine tailed beast, all those years ago.

Shikamaru might call him a coward, but at the end of the day he had never questioned Kiba's moral grounding for not claiming Hinata as his own. If his friend had had his way he would have damned tradition and the purity of the ancient customs and bloodlines. Shikamaru didn't believe in pagonist rituals, and why should he? He was smart after all and was able to predict answers before they were given. He didn't belong to the world that Kiba lived in, one governed by instinct, and intrinsic knowledge passed from generation to generation: the art of touch, smell, taste and sight.

To Hinata's sleeping form, Kiba could guiltlessly confess that he loved her, and tell her that he had never regretted that short time they had been together. He had pressed his nose against her cheek, and then set his lips briefly against hers before backing silently out of the cavern and vanishing into the darkness.

At the end of all things he must go.

He had to find Naruto.

The calling had stopped.

***

A/N yes, it will be finished soon. I've updated, kill me. Finishing exams, writing bits at a time, this took 3 months to put together – thank you for sticking with me.


	21. Iris

Fish Bird (魚鳥）

Chapter Twenty-One: Iris

* * *

"When did you know," Sakura asked smiling, "that I'd let you take me out on a date?"

The kitsune grinned at her, swirling his mystery meat stew around and around his bowl, "Oh I just knew," he said enigmatically, and then laughed at her disbelieving expression, "but it was mostly because Ino told me that you wanted me to ask you."

Sakura flushed furiously, "Oh honestly, that girl can _never_ keep her big mouth shut!"

"Well I'm glad she can't," he responded mouth full of hot potato and stewed carrots, "because I would have never worked up the courage otherwise. You were so out of my league…you still are!"

"Naruto," Sakura said gently looking down at her feet, "you're going to be the next Hokage, everyone can feel it, stop saying that I'm out of your league, it's me that was never _in_ your league. Sometimes I remember all the horrible things I said to you when we were small, all those stupid comments, I was afraid to stand out and be different I think, afraid to like you because it was an unpopular decision. My god," she puffed blowing pink strands of hair out of her beautiful green eyes, "what an idiot I was. I always noticed you Naruto, _always_."

Naruto didn't respond for a while, he seemed entranced with the residue of the stew left in the bowl, swirling the dregs so that the last remaining drops of gravy made crisscrossing patterns against the wooden bowl.

"I'm sorry Sakura," he said finally in a voice that was only a little above a murmur, "I'm sorry for all of this. For everything getting so complicated. For…" He paused uncomfortably and in the dim light she found his hand and finished the sentence for him: "Sasuke."

They didn't need anymore words as they looked at each other, fingers interlaced and feet touching, their bodies perfectly parallel to each other. She felt as if they were one person, their atoms closely bound together as that it was impossible to tell where she ended and he began. If these were her last moments on earth she would be happy, content to die in his arms, to die with him, knowing that he would always protect her, even in death. It seemed strange to remember the days when they had been twelve, with their clumsy feet and awkward growing bodies. She had shunned his smiles, ignored his looks and had thrown the bunches of wild flowers he had picked for her into the bin.

Oh, if only she had a time machine, she could have changed so much and stopped herself from telling him such stupid things.

"I'll get you out of here I promise," he told her quietly, his mouth pressed against her head and hair as she leaned into him. "There is nothing I wouldn't do to protect you Sakura."

She squeezed his hand back, pressing her eyes tightly closed in order to stop the hot tears from swelling up and sliding down her face, she didn't think that there was much hope for them now. The truth was she expected this dark horrible place to be her tomb, a dark crypt infested by demons that would never let her leave. But she didn't tell him this, she just nodded, drawing his hands around her waist and he pulled her close to him, finding that him being so close seemed to drive her anxiety away like a light to a room fill with shadows.

This was how Kiba found them sleeping, some twenty minutes later, wrapped up in each other as if clinging onto to the other person for dear life. It seemed almost a shame to wake them.

Well _almost_, as with a roguish grin he wet his fingers with saliva and stuffed them into Naruto's ears, rotating them fiercely.

The chaos that ensued was only to be expected. Naruto shrieked throwing Sakura from his sleeping body as fists flew suddenly in all directions, one catching Kiba unsuspectingly on the chin so he went down into the flailing pile of limbs, hands and feet. The ensuing scuffle was marvelous as far as Kiba was concerned; Naruto tried his best to punch him squarely on the nose whilst Kiba had jammed his forearm into the space between Naruto's neck and clavicle before Sakura (emerging from God knows where) pulled the two of them apart by the scruff of their necks.

For a moment they stared at each other, puffing and panting, and then Naruto grinned a huge grin that seemed to encompass the whole of his body, laughing as he threw himself towards Kiba.

"You're alive, you're alive, you're **alive**!" he chanted like a sacred mantra, hugging Kiba so hard he was in danger of suffocating him.

"I think so," Kiba told him roughly through his grinning teeth, winking at Sakura whom looked like she was trying very hard not to cry, "you didn't think I'd go down and miss out on all the fun do you?"

"You almost died," Sakura choked out, throwing herself at him as Naruto released Kiba from the vice like grip, "is your heart ok? You're not having any difficulty breathing are you?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I promise. Don't fuss!" Kiba assured as he hugged Sakura back.

"But you were conscious and didn't seem to recognize us," she said worriedly, taking a step away from him and wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "What changed?"

Kiba pursed his lips and tried to explain, "It was like waking up from a trance, a place where I could see all of you and hear all of you, but I lacked the ability to do anything. It was like I was made of stone…" his voice trailed off and he looked at their anxious faces, "But it's finished now, gone. But I have something important to tell you and everyone else, we have to leave, _now_."

Sakura bit her lip and frowned, "Why Kiba?"

"Those things that shot me," he told them, "they left an imprint of their consciousness inside me. It drove me mad, caused me to attack Neji, made me want to kill everyone I saw. It was like a voice talking to me in my head, screaming at me, telling me what to do and I couldn't resist it. But later, after I came to it was just a murmuring, muted, it couldn't tell me what to do anymore, it's influence over me was too weak, but I still had to listen to it."

"What did it say?" Naruto asked, his skin was paler than usual and he looked slightly afraid of what Kiba might say next.

"It wasn't speaking to me," Kiba told him softly, "it was speaking to everything else. All the demons here, it's…. I dunno, it's kin or something. Giving them instructions of where to go and what to do. It's massed the army and they are preparing to march," he looked desperately from Sakura's face to Naruto's. "We have to stop them or everything will be destroyed! There will be no Konoha to return to!"

"Yamato," Naruto said breathing rapidly, "Yamato was talking about bringing down the mountain," he turned desperately to Sakura as if she held all the answers. "If we could bring down the mountain, close all the shafts and tunnels we could trap them in here maybe, kill most of them!"

"Yes," she responded slowly licking her lips, "that might work."

Naruto turned round, taking Sakura's hand in his and motioned for Kiba to follow him, "Lets go find Shikamaru, we don't have much time."

* * *

Akamaru's breathing was heavy and low as Shikamaru sat pouring over the old maps of the mining tunnels trying to figure out a plan. He didn't want to admit to anyone that he felt that the situation was hopeless, even though it _was_ hopeless. He'd already let Kiba down, damn it if he was going to let anyone else down. Ino kept asking him if he was alright; to which he kept responding: of course, even though he wasn't, he was terrified, but he couldn't let anyone else realize that, even if he suspected that Ino already did. He had to pretend to be fearless for her…and the baby.

He frowned as he heard footsteps approaching, not wanting to be disturbed from his meditations. He opened his mouth the expel the words: **I'm busy**, when Akamaru rousing suddenly from his deep and rumbling sleep, threw himself to his feet, leapt over Shikamaru and hurled himself pell-mell into someone behind him. Someone that could only be…

"**Kiba!**"

Shikamaru yelled it rather than saying it, which surprised even himself as he stood up the maps and scrolls rolling hither and thither across the floor, but he didn't care.

Akamaru was growling and whining, rubbing his huge head against his master's body, complaining that he had been left and that he had missed his master and that he had been worried! Whilst Naruto was laughing as usual, and Sakura was grinning watching the scene unfold with shining green eyes. Shikamaru didn't know what to say, or how to say it, or even what he was feeling.

He felt choked up, angry and relieved all at the same time! How dare Kiba make him worry so much, how dare he! It was almost too good to be true, and yet there was his best friend spinning around on the floor with his dog, laughing as if there was no tomorrow. He didn't know if he wanted to punch his skull into his neck or embrace him.

"News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated!" Kiba told him happily from the floor, and then he grinned at Naruto who laughed.

"How long have you been wanting to say that line for?" he joked.

"Forever," Kiba responded leaping to his feet and brushing his knees clear of dirt, he looked round at Shikamaru who's face had gone an ugly purple colour and seemed for once totally speechless.

"Come on Maru," Kiba said regarding him with great disappointment, "Say something, you don't even look remotely pleased to see me!"

"I…" but Shikamaru Nara seemed unable to process words, he blinked at Kiba as if he were something out of a dream, "It was my fault that you…"

"We need to get Yamato and Sai," Sakura announced loudly, grabbing Naruto's wrist and hauling him away from them.

"We do?" Naruto asked puzzled, "But we just sent word round for them to meet us here."

She ignored him, muttered something about idiots under her breath and dragged him off so they could no longer see or hear them.

Kiba waited a moment after they were gone, before speaking gently. "Don't be silly Maru, it wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was. I sent you and Neji out into untold danger, I was being stupid and lazy, I should have checked, I should have realized! I was irresponsible as team leader, I was…" he swallowed, "I was an irresponsible friend. You could have died… I'm so sorry."

Kiba looked down at his chest and flexed his pectoral muscles, he could feel the sharp sting of his ribcage complaining and a dull ache from the healed over wound just below his heart.

"When I became a ninja Shikamaru, I knew that there was a high risk of mortality. There's no amount of planning, or careful diagrams or schematics that will prevent a person from coming to harm a hundred percent of the time. It's just not possible. Sometimes things happen and it's no ones fault, it wasn't your fault that they got me. I was stupid, I panicked and I wasn't fast enough."

He raised his gaze and looked Shikamaru full in the face, "If it hadn't been for all of you, I would have died or worse, become one of them. So thank you for not giving up on me."

He held out his hand for Shikamaru to shake. Shikamaru stared at it for a moment as if it were something completely alien, then he shook his head briefly, murmured something inaudible and pushed Kiba's hand away, so he could hug him. The grin on Kiba's face was monstrous as he squeezed Shikamaru's shoulders, determined to never let him live this moment down. His first Shikamaru initiated hug!

There were he thought, as Shikamaru pulled back somewhat embarrassed and overcome with emotions, something's that were worth _almost_ dying for.

* * *

"You need to take the remaining survivors outside," Yamato was telling Sakura, "In order to stop yourself from becoming a weak target you'll need a heavy guard, I'll assign a large number of nin to you team, including Choji and Lee, I think that will be more than enough firepower to get you clear of these mountains. Meanwhile, someone is going to have to plant the bomb in a place where it will bring down the mountain and then get the hell out of there."

He steepled his fingers in front of his face, closing his eyes, "I'll be honest, it's probably going to be a suicide mission, so I'll volunteer."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Naruto and Shikamaru said together.

"Their right," Sai interjected, "we need you outside where your powers will be more useful. Protecting everyone else."

"I'll go!" Shikamaru announced, standing up, "I've spent hours looking at the maps of the old tunnels, I should be the one to go."

"You can't go alone!" Naruto almost shouted, tripping over his feet in an effort it seemed to get up at the speed of light, "It'll take at least 3 of us to get down there deep enough with a chance of fighting our way back."

"Then you'll need a decoy!" said Kiba puffing out his chest proudly, "I'm the best decoy in the fire nation. I volunteer too."

"If you have Sasuke's eyes," Sakura said quietly, "you may be able to get through them."

"Sasuke won't be joining you." Someone said from behind. They all spun round eyes wide to see Neji, standing some distance away from them, just visible in the flickering firelight.

He was bruised, bumped and scraped with a bloody cut above his left eye. Hinata next to Kiba made a noise of alarm and concern and rushed to his side, he put his hands firmly over her as if he were embarrassed for her to touch him in public and they both coloured. Kiba's eyes narrowed slightly and Naruto and Shikamaru could both see a tinge of crimson rise in his cheeks.

"What happened?" Yamato asked sharply as a murmur of horror swept through them.

"Sasuke attacked me," Neji said simply, "he waited until my back was turned and then he struck. Stupid of me to let him get inside my blind spot."

"He has betrayed us then." Yamato said sadly, his eyes turning (as everyone's had done) to Naruto who looked chalky white from shock.

"I don't understand," the Kitsune said slowly, his heart squirming about in his ribcage and his stomach turning somersaults, "why now? Why wait till now to betray us? Why not kill Neji rather then letting him return back to us? It doesn't make sense."

"Whatever the reason," and Yamato's voice was firm, but not without pity, "It gives us even less time to mobilize. If we assume Sasuke has walked into the enemy's ranks willing or no, he may have given them valuable information on our numbers and location. We have to move, **now**!"

* * *

"I don't believe he's betrayed us!" Naruto snarled, he and Shikamaru standing head to head with each other, each one as furious as the other.

"And what's that based on?" Shikamaru snarled right back at him, "Logic?"

"The longer we stand here arguing about it," Kiba pointed out, looking warily from one friend to another, "the worse the situation becomes. Neji has agreed to be our eyes in Sasuke's place, we need to go."

Neither Naruto nor Shikamaru spoke for a long moment; they glared heatedly at each other before breaking away, Shikamaru with a disgusted grunt whilst Naruto 'maturely' stuck out his tongue.

"If you and Shikamaru go to meet Neji, Kiba I'll meet you there in a minute."

They both hesitated, looking at him warily as if they both expected him to do something stupid.

"I want talk to Sakura."

This wasn't strictly the truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie either. He did need to talk to Sakura, but he wanted to do something else first before it was too late.

He tore off in the direction of the sleeping quarters, edging his way past refugees being stewarded by the Nins into various groups so that all the survivors would hit the surface at the same time without leaving any stragglers to be picked upon.

He could feel the panic building up in his chest as bodies thundered past, the whole crowd picking up momentum as they gathered to leave. He wanted to leave too, to sprint to the outside world and keep on going and never look back. He licked his lips, closed his eyes and willed his heart to slow down; he needed all his wits about him now, not a blind panic. There was far too much at stake to let his feelings get the better of him.

After a few minutes of pushing his way through the masses of he finally saw what it was he had been searching for, the rucksack that Shikamaru had given to him before he and Sasuke had departed from Konoha. Surely if Sasuke were going to leave Naruto a message he would have left it in there!

With mounting excitement he pulled open the top to find… to find his socks piled untidily on top of a lot of dirty clothes. He wrinkled his nose with disgust and turned the bag upside down, tipping the contents onto the hard stone floor.

There was no note, no cryptic message, and no secret scroll of parchment. Nothing. Nadda. _Zip_.

Naruto blinked in disbelief; if Sasuke were going to leave… then surely he would have left him _some_ sort of message, some trace of hope, some clue to where and why he was going. He wasn't just going to take off like that…_again?_

'And why shouldn't he?' the nasty little voice in his head asked him, 'What were you expecting, a sonnet? Face the facts, he's run off like he did last time. Like he always does and always _will do_. When will you learn? Shikamaru is right; he's playing you like a fool. Why do you keep falling for it?'

"I can't believe he'd do this to me, again." He muttered, feeling his stomach sink beyond hopelessness, he felt physically ill.

"After everything…" he leant forwards on his knees, his palms massaging his forehead as he tried to block everything that was Sasuke from his mind. His mouth, his kisses, his skin, his eyes, his touch, his voice….

"You're such an idiot!" he hissed, drawing his fists into curled up balls so his nails bit down savagely into his skin.

He'd never learn when it came to Sasuke, _never_. Even now he was half possessed by the burning mad desire to tear off after him, to hunt him down, to bring him back, to _make_ him see sense.

"You can drag an Uchiha to water Naruto," he muttered angrily to himself.

It was then he saw it, glittering dimly in the flickering torchlight. The smooth curve of a solid gold band, with a blood red gem situated elegantly in the middle. The ring he'd given to Sasuke. The ring that Sasuke had taken smilingly and told him that he'd always come back. No, he hadn't told him… he'd _promised_. Blindly he reached out towards it, fumbling in his haste, it seemed to slip between his fingers as if it were part of a dream, an untouchable reality.

If Sasuke had given this back to him then it meant that he _could_ no longer return, or that he _would_ no longer return. Slowly, gingerly Naruto raised it to eyelevel, the gem gleamed bloody in the dim light like a bleeding wound and he was filled with the sudden and almost overwhelming desire to throw it as hard as he could down the nearest chasm.

Bloody-snake-bollock-camel-foot-humping-coward!

That's how he left? That's what he did? He gave him back the ring? He didn't even tell him _why_? Let him _help_?

"**Fuck you** Sasuke Uchiha," he growled, "I am not chasing after you again through the dark. I am done with this, I have had _enough_!"

He turned, as if to hurl the thing as far away from him as possible, but in mid motion his hand stopped. His body shuddered as his fingers clasped down tightly on the small jewel and he suppressed the urge to sob. He felt desperate, clinging onto the last fragments of a dying hope that was fluttering about desperately between his outstretched hands.

'_They stood there for a moment, eyes closed breathing in, and out, like there was nothing more important in the world for them to do at that point. When Sasuke pulled away Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled something out looping it around a string before throwing it at Sasuke who caught it deftly, looking puzzled._

_"It's a promise," Naruto said stubbornly, hands in pockets, his mouth upturned, mulish and apprehensive at the same._

_"It's a promise, that after all of this is said and done, we're going to be alive at the end of this."'_

"I'm not going to let her die," he snarled between gritted teeth, "she's not going to die for my stupid mistakes."

He had to find Sakura before it was too late; he got up, the ring still clutched in his sticky hands as he ran back to the gathering crowd. He had just made it in time he could see, the lead nin standing at the front of the crowd, lean, swift figures looking about them swathed in dark cloth, ready to make the first advances. At the back stood bulkier Nin, Choji among them, ready to defend the flanks from anything that rushed them at the back. Naruto gave Choji a nod as their eyes met, 'Don't die,' he mouthed as he moved urgently past, 'Or else!'

A little further on, moving more refugees out of the way with his shoulders he saw Lee and not knowing what else to do ran towards him, almost bouncing on his feet with impatience.

"Lee, have you seen Sakura?"

His friend smiled and then nodded, "She just went down there," he said pointing, then he stuck out his hand for Naruto to shake.

For a second, the blond paused. He felt guilty, as if the entire situation was his fault, this of course was not true, if anything the blame lay more with Sasuke then with anyone of them, but he felt as if he had willingly bought a traitor into their midst, and if anyone died it would be his fault.

"I…" he began but Lee cut him off.

"You didn't know," he was told firmly, "you trusted him. You thought you were doing the right thing."

Naruto's gaze met Lee's and found that his dark eyes held no trace of resentment or anger on them.

"Sometimes things happen, they snowball out of control and no-one can do anything but watch. You'll see my friend, no one could have done anything more, we will just have to wait out the storm together."

Naruto had a fleeting vision of Lee at the Chuunin exams fighting Gaara once again, the time Gai had intervened to save his life. He remember Kakashi-sensei calling Gai an idiot for willingly putting Lee in danger by teaching him all those techniques. To a certain extend it _had_ been Gai's fault, but Naruto and Kakashi had known secretly, deep down that Gai had really had no other choice. To not teach Lee those moves would have, in itself, been an act of betrayal. Sometimes Naruto thought that actions were mixed up in fate, some things, **no matter what** were meant to happen, and _always_ would do.

He and Sasuke were like this. Two fixed points in an ever-fluctuating universe, whatever happened they would always be drawn to each other. It was in their nature, perhaps their fate. Their destiny was as wrapped up in each other DNA, winding round and round into eternity.

It didn't make him feel _better_ but it did to a certain extent make him feel less helpless.

"Thanks Lee," he murmured taking his hand, they smashed heads together in the invigorating fashion that Gai-sensei had shown them both, despite the fact that they both saw stars.

"Let the spirit of youth flow through us all!"

"Indeed!" Lee shouted at his retreating back.

He saw Shikamaru standing with Ino, his back towards the entrance of the tunnels that he, Kiba and Naruto would be disappearing into very shortly. Naruto had no idea what those two were saying to each other; even _his_ sensitive hearing couldn't pick out the syllables, perhaps Shikamaru had done that on purpose because he caught Naruto's eye as he ran past them, with a distinct 'mind-your-own-damn-business' expression on his face.

He shouldered his way past Yamato, gave Sai a playful smack on the bum as he moved by and finally after what felt like hours found Sakura.

She was kneeling over a small sac, last minute preparations, provisions and weapon checks it always pays to be thorough. That was so very like Sakura Naruto thought. Always a hundred percent on exams, never missed a class, always early for school, that bright pink hair and those dazzling green eyes. He felt overwhelmed for a moment thinking of their past, and how they might not have a future now. He stood as if rooted to the spot, unsure of what he'd come to say, unsure of what he'd come to do.

She seemed to sense him staring at her because she turned round quickly and he could see the evidence from the way her eyes were slightly puffy and red that she had been crying. She looked surprised to see him, then relieved, then tremendously happy, and as if she was unaware she was moving, she threw herself fluidly into his arms.

"Please come back safe." she muttered into his collarbone, "Please come back. Please don't leave me Naruto. Please don't do anything stupid. Please, please don't go after him again. He's going to get you killed!"

He held her tightly; his fingers raking painfully into her back because he thought his heart might explode from emotion and he was shaking as he drew her face to his and kissed her.

"You have to promise me you'll live," it was hard not to become hysterical at this point, he felt as if he had lived this entire life just to reach this singular moment. "You have to promise me that _if_ you can get out you _will_." He saw her begin to shake her head, her determination to save him from Sasuke, that terror in her eyes that he would be as foolhardy as he was when he was twelve and try to save him again.

"No, you promise me Sakura that you'll get out, even if it means leaving me behind - leaving everyone behind. You have to warn Konoha! They have to know! This… this 'army', it will decimate everything. They are completely unprepared! Everything you've seen, all the stories you've heard, all the horrors you've dreamed, times it by a thousand and that's what this war will be."

She was crying now, tears streaming down her face as she kissed him, "I know," she said and her voice was thick and heavy, "Naruto, I can't stand the thought of losing you. We've been through too much to lose everything now. I wish… I wish…" she blinked, her eyes a verdant intoxicating green, "we could run away together. Leave all of this… _mess_ behind us, just you and me, we'll start over."

Naruto grinned as he felt her warm tears run down his face, she hiccupped and he held her close to him.

"Just you and me and our fisherman's cottage on the beach?" he murmured into her ear, "We'll go somewhere exotic."

"Just sea, sand and the palm trees," she said thickly, looking up at him with wet clumpy lashes, her nose red, "we'll get two dogs."

"One named Hello, the other Goodbye."

"It'll drive Shikamaru mad."

"We'll have a spare room for when Kiba comes to stay."

She grinned weakly, "So not just the two of us then, hmm?"

Naruto felt like he was burning up from the inside as he put both of his hands either side of her face and looked at her, there were so many thoughts, so many emotions he couldn't express. Sakura was his childhood and his future, the one he was sure his parents would have wanted him to have, the future where he was Hokage and loved and accepted by all those around him that he admired and trusted.

"There'd be enough room for you, me, all our friends and," he paused and he knew she knew what he was going to say before he said it, "Our children."

He didn't trust himself to speak anymore lest he break down completely, so he gave her the ring.

She took it without question; it was still attached to the thin loop of string that Sasuke had pulled through it that time he had told Naruto…

"You'll come back," she said almost aggressively hanging it around her neck, "I don't care if you have to breakout of the underworld Naruto, you come back to me, do you hear?"

"Don't die then." He instructed.

From behind them they could hear the call to begin moving out, his heart jumped into his mouth and he held her hand knuckle-white, terrified of losing her, terrified of never seeing her again.

She ran her hand through his blond hair, "I have to go."

"I love you."

"I know. I love you."

"I know."

Sakura turned, leaving with the rest of the hoard to breach the surface, she gave Naruto a last, longing look, and then merged into the mass of people and the clustering darkness.

Naruto felt his hope; his resilience and some of his spirit go with her. He'd trade his soul to keep her safe, but the best thing he could do now would be to go with his friends into the deep tunnels beneath them and try to bring down the mountain from within.

He too turned and with a sudden jolt of surprise saw Kiba standing directly behind him, a wolfish smile on his handsome face.

"I…I didn't hear you there."

"You never do," Kiba told him haughtily, "you were too busy making eyes at your missus."

"Are you ready?"

Kiba paused, his auburn hair, roguish mouth and reddish brown eyes seemed to standout in the dark, as if he possessed some unnatural glow about his person. It must be nerves, Naruto thought to himself.

"I guess," he friend said after an age, "lets go find Shikamaru and that bastard Neji."

* * *

If Naruto had pressed a little further down the passage, to the right and through a narrow entrance between two rocks he would have found the body of a large dog crammed into the corner in a hope that no one would see it, its throat brutally slashed and red blood sliding oozily across the dark rock. There was still a surprised, almost disbelieving expression in its kind dark eyes as if it could not understand what had happened.

As they were all leaving in the opposite direction, no one checked and so no one saw and in their haste to leave, the coldness Naruto perceived in Kiba's eyes he attributed to the fact that he must have just said goodbye to Hinata. He didn't twig that the ferocious beast of a dog trotting calmly behind them was in fact no dog at all.

Yamato had been right to a certain extent, they had indeed been betrayed, but it had not been by Sasuke.

* * *

_"Naruto," he didn't question why he'd given it to him, or what he was supposed to do with it apart from wearing it around his neck, but it seemed important to say it._

_"Naruto, at the end of this, I promise I'll come back to you."_

* * *

__A/N: I know that this story has not been updated in yonks, but there was not a single day when I didn't think about it. I want this story's ending to be perfect and a lot of things that were nagging me about the ending became clear as I wrote this. A lot has happened since I started this, (I think I grew up, sob) but I have read everyone of your reviews and I want to say thank you, I hope this story has bought as much joy and sadness to you as it has to me.

Dear reader, I wrote this for you.

xxx

P.S although I doubt anyone will read this!


	22. Too Close

**Fish Bird (****魚鳥****）**

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Too close**

* * *

She moved around the cavern restlessly, her eyes moving to the ceiling and then to the floor muttering to herself as the demons lined up behind her as a solid stack of shadows.

"Not quite yet," she murmured. "Not quite yet, we don't want to give the game away too quickly do we? No, that wouldn't be any _fun_."

From his position on the floor all that Sasuke could see of her were her thin ghostly legs as she walked past his head, too preoccupied with whatever it was she was planning to notice that he was slowly making an attempt to break the binding jutsu that was currently gluing him to the floor.

It was slow progress. Mostly because he could only use chakra in one arm and gathering all his energy there was proving more and more difficult by the minute as the black rods inserted into the rest of his body radiated blinding waves of pain. He bit down on his tongue to stop himself from crying out, tears stinging his eyes as he counted an increasing intensity with every twenty seconds.

Dimly it occurred to him that if she noticed she would probably kill him or worse, strip him of his chakra _again_. He shuddered remembering the last time she had done that. In his mind he pictured Her as she had been, the skeleton corpse he had found in a sealed tomb.

Why he hadn't realized _then_ that releasing her would have been a monumentally _stupid_ idea?

* * *

In his arrogance and naivety Sasuke had thought that whatever he had freed he would be able to control, and the cost had not seemed that high. His chakra in exchange for Itachi's life, a temporary bond between them to be severed on his death?

It seemed almost too good to be true and as his brother had died at his feet, an expression of surprise etched over the remnants of his handsome face he realized that it was. She had become too powerful too quickly, shaking off the spells that had bound her to a weak form; he had felt the pull of her becoming stronger and stronger.

Her labored excuse of needing more time had grown rapidly thinner and thinner as he noticed that she no longer walked in his shadow but roamed forth foraging for 'food'.

One day she had chanced upon a small settlement and had then proceed to devour the villagers…whole.

As Sasuke had walked through the village after her, determined to put an end to her the site of the brutal, violent, senseless bloodshed had turned his stomach.

**He** who had spent his formative years under the study of Orochimaru, only to watch him be consumed effortlessly by her as well.

In the little village carrion had been strewn across the dirt paths like confetti, the heavy smell of entrails permeating the air like a dark clinging mist, whilst blood had dripped from the little huts as a gruesome substitute for paint.

Every here and there he had seen evidence in the ground of a struggle, as if she had played with her food before eating it, a cat toying with a mouse before its inevitable demise.

* * *

_/Wake up!/_

Sasuke opened his eyes again, the pain was much more bearable now as his veins flooded with a cool determination to break free, no matter what the cost to his own body.

"Whom shall I send?" she asked, looking about her at the line of heads craning at her from the floor to the ceiling.

"Do we choose stealth?" She pointed to a slimy creature, skeletally thin with huge protruding eyes and tiny needle like teeth. It made a soft gulbing sound of pleasure at these words.

"Do we choose brute force?" Another demon came pouncing forwards from the shadows swiping aggressively at its tiny brethren whom scarpered at the sight of it. The huge demon's jagged teeth clacked together in its obscenely ugly face, whilst its eyes whirled round and round as if on stalks.

She paused for a moment and then beckoned at something right at the back of the cavern, before saying "Or, shall we choose my favourite?"

Sasuke couldn't see what it was that she had summoned forwards but noted that the other demons had scarpered away from it, even the huge bestial summon she had just called forward quickly moved to get out of the way of whatever it was she had just called into view. He had decided however that he did not care for her little exhibition; she was probably only doing it to frighten him, flex her muscles, impress him even.

Right now, his main priority was to free himself from this bind which felt as if every one of his vertebra were cemented to the floor. He took a calming breath in, closed his eyes and willed his heart to stop beating wildly in his chest. Slowly, achingly slowly he began to unpick himself from the full body bind, hoping to god she was too preoccupied to sense the chakra buildup in his arm as the black rods sent waves of pain throughout his body once again.

* * *

When Sasuke had eventually found her in the grandest house of the little village, she was sitting in the chair of the village elder. A beautiful hand crafted chair made from bamboo and cypress, intricately designed so that the wood had taken on the characteristic of a willow tree.

She no longer looked like a wizened corpse resurrected by forbidden jutsu and old magic, she looked youthful and vibrant instead. Her skin silky and pale, long dark hair that fell across her shoulders and the small of her back like the night sky, her face heart shaped with a pouting mouth. She would have been impossibly beautiful if it had not been for the remnants of her last meal smeared bloodily across her dark lips. It was then she had looked at his surprised face with her sparkling violet eyes and laughed at him.

"What's the matter Sasuke? Don't you like it?" she had asked getting up from the chair and swishing that length of hair behind her like an obsidian curtain. She had dressed herself in the clothes of a shrine maiden and seemed to take great delight in his surprise.

"I thought you'd prefer me like this." she had told him sweetly, walking towards him on slender feet and slipping her arms around his neck and smiling up at him. There was something so dangerous about her eyes he had thought, some malevolent force just behind the irises, dancing seductively on the tip of her tongue. Up close he could smell the blood beneath her nails and feel the scream of her victims reverberating within her cool flesh, his fingers had reached up to curl about her wrists either side of his neck.

She had no pulse he perceived.

"I _do_ prefer you like this," he'd said softly, despite it being an outright lie and yet not daring to look away as he saw her smile grow wider.

"Think of what we could do together," she had murmured against his ear. "Everything would be ours for the taking. We'd have no-one to fear and no-one to stop us."

Her breasts were small and firm he noted as she had pressed her body up against his, drawing his hands around her waist as he entwined his fingers in her hair. He had leaned down to kiss her, her mouth was slightly parted and expectant like a newly flowered rose after a storm, he had seen the passion in her eyes and had felt the tension in the air. He had made the choice then, throwing a stone into a mountain that had started an avalanche, and in one swift movement took his katana to her bare flesh.

* * *

As Sasuke's legs became unbound he desperately began to work on freeing his other arm, every second he took doing this increased the chances of discovery.

Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as he forced himself to lie perfectly flat, overhead one of the creatures stepped over him, brushing his face with a monstrous talon so that the hooked end dug into his cheek drawing blood. Still he made no sound and didn't move a muscle, only listened desperately for a clue to her movements, she was still talking to the favoured one Sasuke presumed, the hustle and bustle of things all around him as they prepared to move out shielded his attempts at freedom from being noticed.

Something behind him snorted loudly, and he felt his gut turn to ice. He'd cut his damn arm off if he had to as 'the thing' dripped past his left shoulder, a disgusting oily smell clouding his nostrils and causing his skin to crawl. With a spiraling sense of urgency he gathered his chakra into a fine blade and sliced through the last tendons of the bind. Finally! His arm was free. A jolt of excitement sizzled throughout his body. He turned his attention back to where she was standing, in amongst the throng of demonic heads and scaled skin. If he could just…

He tensed himself to spring, a fireball would have been perfect right about now, but it required chakra to gather in his chest and mouth and that was an impossibility these chakra-absorbing rods in his body.

Sasuke felt vulnerable, as if he were about to wage war in nothing but his bare skin. Nothing to protect him except his wit and his senses, and he only had one arm to work with if he was attacking her.

But enough was enough, this had gone on for far too long now was the time to bring the roof down, literally.

* * *

Sasuke had always been one to play games. How she had howled with rage as he had sliced the katana into her belly, she had still been at only a fraction of her real strength and even with impaired chakra flow Sasuke was a formidable opponent.

He hadn't realized however that with each fallen victim she became that much stronger, feeding from fear and despair she had indulged gluttonously. Purposely playing with each and everyone of her quarry, their screams of dread and pleas for mercy had increased her strength exponentially. That had been the first fight in which she had summoned her demons to her, and they had clustered about her as if protecting their mother, which, he supposed she was.

As the rain had began to fall Sasuke had been savagely attacked on all sides by the dark hoard, but he had pressed on, not caring if he lived or died so long as he defeated _her_.

Long talons had ripped at his arms and jagged teeth had aimed for his jugular, whilst she had stood on a mound of bloodied earth. Hair like black paint plastered against her skin, eyes wicked and malicious as she laughed at him whilst nursing the deep gash he had given her on her abdomen.

She didn't have the common decency to bleed, he had noticed. Instead the blood had seemed to drop out of her, heavy and clotted like thick honey as if it were already coagulated inside of her.

As he had fought on against impossible odds, he realized she was being careful _not_ to let them kill him, he didn't care what the reason was but it did provide him with an ace.

The demons had fallen on him endlessly, each wave attacking with renewed strength. As he threw one to the ground and had turned in one fluid movement to behead the one behind him, another two seamlessly took their place.

Sasuke was many things, arrogant, selfish and prideful, but he wasn't stupid, this was a battle he could not directly win. So he had feinted and played defeat itself.

Sinking to his knees he had admitted the inevitability of his fate and had surrendering to the helplessness of the never-ending hoard.

Oh, and _how she had gloated_, almost screaming in pleasure. Her small feet 'pit-pattering' over to him in the darkness as she had prepared to unhinge her jaw and swallow him whole.

_/Calm down, now is not the moment to panic./_

Sasuke had waited, waited carefully; dread creeping steadily through his veins as he felt her stoop over him. He waited despite his brain and senses screaming at him to run, that he was a fool, that it he would die. He stayed motionless as if carved from marble, not daring to move until it was almost too late and then lunged for the katana and drove it forcefully upwards.

Sasuke had been showered with hot and sticky blood, but he didn't care as he was too absorbed by her horrible scream. A truly gut wrenching cry that had sent the birds flapping from the trees in terror all around them and had seemed to send jolts of snapping electricity across his skin. He had stabbed the katana four times through her chest and had turned to run as she had fallen with a heavy 'slump' to the ground, crumbling like sand under water.

The demons had pursued him out of the remains of the village, across the wilderness and through the forest, he had _hoped_ she was dead, that he had killed her, but he knew that he had not. He had only weakened her for a while but had failed to stop the inevitable, something he needed to do now before anymore time was lost.

* * *

Like black lightening Sasuke got to his feet, gathering all of his energy in one hand and slamming his fist into the wall, directly to her left. The rock split with an ear-shattering CRACK and the cavern shook ferociously, large pieces of the ceiling plummeting down onto the floor.

He heard her shriek, as huge boulders crashed to the ground and the demons leapt squealing in all directions, some too slowly to avoid being crushed beneath the rock avalanche – to be pulverized with a satisfying 'squish'.

Sasuke pressed himself as close to the wall as possible with both his arms over his head, trying to protect himself from what appeared to be the world tearing itself apart around him like tissue paper. Dust clouded his eyes and he began to cough, the tumultuous amount of noise around him blocked off his hearing and his sense of touch, and as he staggered backwards narrowly missing a huge boulder that smashed inches away from where he had just been standing.

Now was the time to make an escape. But even as he flung himself forwards into the fray something picked him up roughly by his collar and threw him aggressively back into the hard merciless rock. Sasuke's skull cracked and he felt as if he would shatter with pain as his teeth clamped down agonizingly on his tongue. He gave a low moan and was thrown to the floor, his hands pinned behind his back and forced into a kneeling position.

As the dust cleared and the blood from his head wound dripped down the bridge of his nose and the back of his neck, he sensed her move towards him and when he looked up he was filled with the elated knowledge that he _had _hurt her.

Her skin was hanging loosely from one side of her face so it revealed the bone of the skull underneath her right eyelid, and her lips seemed to be pulled almost completely from her face.

"You piece of **shit**," she spat, quivering with rage as she grabbed his neck in her cold icy hands, "You will have the _pleasure_ of watching what happens this time." And she slapped him hard across the face with the back of her hand so he felt the red marks left by her fingers burning into the skin.

"Incarcerate him so he can see." She told whatever it was that was holding him down.

Sasuke tried to twist around to escape, to overpower his opponent, to fling himself at her, but the cold hands kept him firmly in place. Methodically they pushed his head forwards and then dragged him backwards by his dark matted hair.

"**Let go**!" he hollered but the grip was merciless. Sasuke felt something slide over his foot, climbing steadily up his leg and across his pelvis, making its way up to his chest, neck and face.

"_No_! Let go of me!" He continued to yell, his fingers digging into the ones knotted in his hair that were pulling so violently it felt as if his scalp may rip away entirely.

He looked down at the whatever-it-was creeping across his body and with dread perceived it to be part of the cavern itself. Rock under some jutsu made to bubble and flow like water so that it melded around him, drawing him into the rock even as he watched it. Wildly he swung out, but strands shot out from the wall behind him like the strings of a spider's web, ensnaring him, making it impossible to move. The rock was now sliding across his Adam's apple, over his chin and poking at the recesses of his mouth. Oh god, how was he going to breathe? Would he suffocate?

It was only then that pressure was released on his head and it was at last that Sasuke could finally see his captor standing in front of him, and as he looked he felt a dark wave of panic crash over him. The dark, expressionless eyes of his brother stared back at him as the rock swallowed him into the wall, like a tomb.

"Itachi."

Sasuke didn't know why he bothered to say it out loud, they were words that no one could hear as the rock caged him in total darkness. He felt fear and dread claw ruthlessly at his insides as the rock pressed as a suffocating mask across his face.

There was no way to warn Naruto or the others.

He was trapped.

* * *

"Hey Naruto, Naruto! … Naruto? Naruto be **careful!**"

"We are climbing across a vertical drop!" Naruto snapped, "What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm not about to try to _slide_ down it!"

Stress had made them irritable Shikamaru thought as he pressed his body against the rock edge, in his mind he thanked whoever it was that had taught him to compress chakra into his fingertips and feet so that he didn't just go tumbling off the precipice and into a cold oblivion.

Once Shikamaru knew, instead of a gaping great hole in the earth there had been a lift that had descended into the perilous depths of the world in the cold persuit of compressed carbon.

Who the hell likes diamonds this much! He found himself wondering, staring down into the depths of the hole as if were the hungry mouth of a restless Sea-Monster.

On the circular hewn walls around the gaping void there was evidence of rusting machinery where the lift had once run. He imagined the miners lowering themselves to their death on one fateful day, the lift cable snapping either by chance or malicious intent and the counter balance ripping straight through the metal wire.

That would be a dreadful way to die, he thought plummeting to your death for _jewelry_. Would there be anything left of you after the impact? Just a mess of blood and bones in no particular recognizable order? The sort of crime scene when dental records need to be carefully examined in order to identify the victim. He closed his eyes and gently knocked his head against the nearest rock, sometimes having an overactive imagination was _not_ a good thing.

Mentally he pulled himself back from the brink and shouldered the makeshift bomb higher up his back. Focus please; don't think about anything else but the mission in hand.

_/Especially don't think about the likelihood that you're all about to die!/_

"Neji?" He called out, "Do you see anything?"

"Nothing." The Nin called from somewhere in front of him; from the sounds of it Neji had effortlessly (typically) conversed the hole and was waiting patiently for them on the other side, safe (as far as it was possible to be) on solid ground.

"Why don't we have any night vision goggles?" Kiba asked from directly behind him. He was sitting astride Akamaru, his large dog jumping from protruding rock outcrop to protruding rock outcrop, holding a lighted torch in one hand and in Shikamaru's opinion looked disgustingly untroubled by the thousand foot drop beneath them.

Damn himself for being afraid of heights, he had _never_ liked them.

"Because we _don't._" Shikamaru ground out from his back molars, his voice sounded tense and terse exactly portraying how he was feeling.

"If we have the equipment to make a Bomb," Kiba continued to narrate. "We should have the equipment to make night vision goggles, I can't see in the dark, I don't think Neji can either. Can you Naruto?"

"I'm possessed by the demon **fox**," Naruto shouted irritably at him, some way in front of Shikamaru now. "Not the demon owl!"

"There you see," Kiba concluded triumphantly as if he had made some irrefutable point. "Night vision goggles would have come in really handy right about now, I could have looked like a proper ninja, not some twat on a mutt carrying a lighted stick."

He patted his dog fondly on the head, "No offense Akamaru."

Shikamaru would have liked to respond with something along the lines of: Foxes are nocturnal you dolt and so no different from normal then? But the rock he was hanging from was unstable; he could feel it shaking slightly beneath his splayed fingers.

If the stupid thing gave way he was going to fall, and if he fell, he wasn't sure he could see well enough to grab hold of something else.

_/Dental Records…/_

Shikamaru's palms began to sweat profusely.

"Maru," he heard Naruto call out his pet name, that could only mean he was worried. "You're almost across."

Shikamaru steadied his heartbeat, tensed his arm muscles and flung himself onto the next decent purchase. The bomb weighed heavily on his back, dragging him down further than he had expected to fall so that his fingers almost missed the rock he had been aiming for, he gave a surprised yell and felt the whole world swing unsteadily beneath him. His purchase was precarious to say the least, and despite his chakra giving him extra grip he could still feel himself slipping. He needed to get to the ledge _now_.

Drawing a kunai from his pocket he rammed it into the rock face using it to haul himself upwards, adrenaline rushing in his ears and flowing through his veins like a narcotic. He heard Naruto and Kiba yell, but he was only conscious of himself as he used his arms and feet to propel himself to the ledge, jumping across at least six feet of utter unimaginable blackness. Sweeping clean across that sickening drop.

He landed after what seemed an endless age with his arms outstretched on the hard rock of the shelf but then to his horror slid unstoppably backwards, the heavy dead weight of the bomb determinedly dragging him backwards towards the pit.

Down, down, down, into the deep.

The damn thing was determined to kill him he could feel it.

_/Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma. Bad Karma…../ _

Hard fingernails dug painfully into his arm, hauling him away from that dread sucking feeling. He had never been so glad to feel Naruto's solid weight ramming into his noise as he grabbed any part of Shikamaru's body that he could, taking him away from that soul-sucking drop.

They both staggered forwards, foreheads sweaty, caked in dirt and shaking uncontrollably.

"T-thanks." He managed to get out. He didn't _dare_ look behind him.

"You okay?" Naruto asked concerned, behind him they all heard the place on the rock face where Shikamaru had been holding onto for dear life just seconds ago, tumble down the vertical drop into oblivion.

Shikamaru gave him a swift nod, feeling his stomach plummet with the falling debris.

"Is the bomb okay?" Neji asked, in a typical Neji manner.

_/Priorities first I understand, but you can at least pretend to be concerned!/_

Shikamaru gave him the finger, and he saw Neji give one of his rare smiles. A moment later Kiba and Akamaru joined them, taking a jaw dropping eight-foot leap with apparent ease.

"You pansy," Kiba said jokingly, sliding effortlessly from the giant dog's back, clapping his friend jovially on the arm. Shikamaru gave him his best _don't-fuck-with-me-you-son-of-a-bitch_ look and noticed an odd acrid smell lingering about his friend's skin. He frowned, decided it was nothing and told them they had to press on.

"We're approaching the Devil's Mouth." He said, pulling a map from out of one of his many pockets.

"The Devil's what?"

"This mountain range, the subterranean river, it all connects to the ocean. Down here there's a cavern that connects to a deep part of the tunnels, but it's only uncovered when the tide is out. We should be fine if we can place the bomb here, it'll be in the deepest part of the cave system we can reach, but we have to get in and out before the water gets in. If we blow this place apart not only will it collapse but it'll also be flooded."

They all nodded silently, looking apprehensive at the idea of the extra pressure of time. It wasn't something that anyone was going to welcome in with open arms.

"I have some luminescent vials," Shikamaru continued handing a small glass bottle to each of them. "I doubt the torch will do us much good in the damp tunnels. I want you to try avoid using chakra if at all possible, it seems to draw the demons straight to us."

"So…the plan is?" Kiba asked hesitatingly.

"Get in, plant the bomb and get out." Shikamaru said grimly. "Nothing else, we don't have _time_ for anything else. We barely have time as it is."

"Well let's get to it then." Neji said efficiently, leading the way.

Shikamaru stole a glance at Naruto, his friend's face was apprehensive and slightly drawn. He looked pensive as if fighting some internal struggle within his head. Shikamaru thought he knew what it was he was thinking.

"There is nothing you can do," he murmured barely above whisper. "He made his choice, you can't die for him Naruto. None of us are going to let you."

Naruto's cornflower blue eyes slid to his, his shoulders were slightly slumped as if in gentle defeat but his wide generous mouth was firm, a sigh that he had resolutely made up his mind.

"I'm not going to put you in danger for Sasuke," he said quietly so not even Kiba could hear. "This is too important, for everyone's sake."

Shikamaru wanted to say 'Good!' but sensed tactfully that that probably wasn't the appropriate response. So instead he cleared his throat and clapped Naruto on the back and then behind him. He had expected Kiba to come bouncing forwards, some silly pep talk spiraling disastrously from the tip of his tongue. But instead his friend looked blank and distant, his face curiously void of all emotions.

Perhaps the idea of the task ahead was getting to him?

"Alright," Shikamaru said straightening his collar and straightening his back so that the bomb didn't weigh so heavily across his shoulders. "Lets go do this."

* * *

The further they pressed the damper the tunnel system became. The constant drip, drip, drip from the ceiling had long extinguished Kiba's torch, now he padded quietly behind Shikamaru, luminescent vial strapped to his belt as Akamaru moved silently in his long shadow.

"You can hear the water beneath us." He muttered quietly to Shikamaru; as a huge gurgle rippled through the rock beneath them, like a monster stirring from a deep slumber. "You sure the tide isn't coming in? Absolutely a hundred percent positive?"

In the darkness Shikamaru crossed his eyes, he was developing a stress tick high on his forehead

"Lets put it like this," he said in what he regarded to be tones of the upmost patience. "If it was in, I'd seriously recommend you rapidly evolve gills."

"Some ninja can breathe underwater." Naruto interjected turning round to look at the two of them. "Kisame, he could breathe underwater I think."

"Yeah, but wasn't he half a sea urchin?" Kiba asked genuinely confused.

"I think you mean a half shark." Shikamaru corrected him, looking at his friend puzzled as if he were mentally deficient. "And no, no, no he wasn't! But there may be jutsu taught in Kirigagure that may enable a person to breathe underwater, it would make sense. Unfortunately I've never read anything about a jutsu like that, probably because countries protect certain techniques from ever…"

"Shut up!" Neji interjected swiftly startling the rest of them; he was standing several feet in front with a luminescent vial strapped to his wrist so that he could use his arm to guide a small pathway of light.

"We are not alone here."

"Have they found us?" Naruto asked, there was a thick transparent note of panic in his voice.

"No, but they are _close_." Neji said darkly, his Bayakugan was activated as it had been for the past hour. He seemed deeply apprehensive.

"How many?" Shikamaru asked closing his own eyes as he said it, trying to reach out and sense the other things in the darkness with them. The answer seemed superfluous, Neji might not have been able to round the number to the nearest ten, but the answer was still a _lot_.

They carried on in silence from then on, each of them feeling the mounting pressure as they descended down and down into the depths of the tunnels. Shikamaru found himself staring at Naruto's broad back for most of the journey, his mind sorting through different scenarios and conclusions to their mission. In most scenarios the outcome seemed bleak, but he predicted that if they were careful and if everything went to _plan_ they had a decent enough chance of surviving. However, he knew from the experience of being around Naruto and Kiba almost constantly for the past five years that things _never_ went to plan when it involved those two. The bane of his life, but his two best friends.

This had all started on a routine mission as well, information gathering, nothing special. They had finished early and he and Kiba had been playing a much loved game of theirs 'who can tease Naruto the longest before he chases you up a tree' and then…Sasuke.

Shikamaru sighed, if only they had never found Sasuke he thought wistfully. If only Naruto had somehow leapt to the rational conclusion that leaving the Nin in a pile of his own blood was probably best for all parties involved. Even in his head that sounded heartless. He sighed. But if all this could have been avoided then surely…?

Naruto was Naruto, he had always loved Sasuke and Shikamaru suspected he always would do. In whatever capacity Sasuke desired of Naruto to reciprocate that love, Naruto would do it that was simply part who he was. Obsessed! Unhealthily so! He wanted to give his friend a shake, to tell him to wake up! That it would only end in heartache and more pain. But it wasn't any good, like a parent he had to realize that some mistakes you simply have to watch being made without interfering, even if they made them over and over again. He couldn't physically **stop** Naruto from loving Sasuke, bar erasing his memory. All he could do was advise, be his friend and provide him with a shoulder to cry on.

His thoughts of Naruto spiraled to thoughts of Kiba and Hinata, and then to thoughts of himself and Ino, he let his mind fall into a tedious tone. He thought passively of the growing wetness of the tunnel, the way drips kept sliding down his neck sticking uncomfortably to the skin beneath his collar, and how the muscles of his back ached uncomfortably. He thought about one foot being placed in front of the other, not slipping, and that he hoped Ino was far, far, far away from the mountain right now…

In those monotonous moments, he didn't register that it was all going to hell.

As they approached the Devil's Mouth it went wrong. This was another hole in the endless landscape of rock, only it was smooth edged this time from where the water from the ocean had risen daily out of it's mouth only to descend again into its jet-black depths in its daily ritual. Here there was no evidence of man made machinery, as if the original settlers had realized this place was far too dangerous and had turned promptly back.

From beneath their feet deep-rumbling sounds kept erupting out of the hole like a bubbling volcano. Naruto and Kiba eyed it warily, as Shikamaru tightening the straps on his rucksack motioned that they had to go across it in order to plant the bomb.

They all looked at him as if he was mad.

"Are you serious?" Kiba mouthed at him. "Are you trying to get us all killed?"

Shikamaru fixed him with a stern look, swiping his thumb across his forehead in a curiously Naruto like fashion. He turned and looked at Neji whom nodded at him, took one look at the width of the hole, judged the run up and took it.

There was something about Neji Hyuuga that made everything look effortless. He sailed in a graceful arc over the gaping whole and landed neatly on the other side of it, motioning for the rest of them to follow suite.

He gave Kiba a smile of 'Look Neji can do it, you pussy' and thought his friend might try to drop-kick him into the depths of the hole in reciprocation. Shaking such theories off and penning it down to love rivalry and jealously, Shikamaru steadied himself. He told himself not to think about the drop _again_ when he felt fingers curl around his elbow and stole a glance to his immediate left to see Naruto give him a deft wink.

"Together?" He mouthed and Shikamaru silently thanked him.

It was only when Kiba jumped that the real problems began, as he got mid jump a clap of thunder rolled around the tunnel. Except there was no such thing as underground thunder, and with a cold suck of air and an ear shattering 'WHOOSH' water came bursting out of the Devil's Mouth.

It caught Kiba directly, slamming him into the smooth wall of the tunnel and dragging him down under the water. He lost his grip totally, sliding quickly down into the bottomless depths, sliding, as far as Shikamaru was concerned towards hell. They fought to get to him, water flying at them this way and that, stinging their eyes with salt and slapping them hard across the face, pushing them backwards away from their friend with unrelenting force. Akamaru howled, desperate to claw his way towards his Master, despite the force of the water pushing him away.

"**KIBA!**" Shikamaru heard himself yell above the noise, coughing as the salt water drove into his mouth and throat. He saw Kiba lash out trying to find something to hold onto, as the water seemed to curl around his waist like a fist and drag him under. At this rate he was either going to drown or be pulled down into the Devil's Mouth completely, and both he and Naruto suddenly knew at the same time what Kiba was going to do before he did it.

There was a huge burst of chakra from within the water, a massive blue light exploding through the walls of the tunnel as Kiba shot himself from out of the fray. He came twisting out of the gurgling geyser, absolutely no control over what direction he flew in, just as long as it was _**out**_. He slammed hard into the ceiling of the low tunnel a few meters away and slumped to the floor, they could see a long gash across his forehead that sent blood sluicing down his face.

"You idiot!" Shikamaru heard Neji screaming as Naruto ran towards his fallen friend, actively shouldering the jounnin out of the way in order to get to Kiba.

"For fuck **sakes**," he heard the Kitsune yelling straight back at him. "What the hell was he supposed to do?"

Shikamaru didn't have time to hear the argument that was about to spiral from Kiba's particular choice of actions, life saving or not, they were now presented with a huge problem. From behind them the Devil's Mouth gave another almighty roar, water spewing from the depths like foamy thunder.

"We need to **go**!" he shouted, grabbing Kiba's dazed form from his slumped position on the floor and hauling him forwards.

"Come on go, they know we're here. **Run!**"

Kiba stumbled after his best friend; he looked dazed, blood dripping thickly into his eyes as he pressed forwards. Akamaru running loyally behind him, muzzle pressed reassuringly into Kiba's side as they went.

"Naruto, to me!" Shikamaru yelled, motioning for the Kitsune to take up the position directly in front of him. He had a suspicion, and he wasn't about to let Naruto out of his sight.

"Can you hear them?" Kiba asked; his eyes filled with fear as he said it. Shikamaru didn't bother to turn round; he just redoubled his efforts to keep going and ignore the sickening sound of the things coming after them. It was impossible to think they could be gaining up on them so fast, was it? Or were they descending on them from out of the walls? He thought he could make out the snake-like silhouettes of arms reaching out at them as they raced past.

"Neji!" he shouted pulling Kiba close to him as his friend staggered almost drunkardly to the left, that knock to the head had seemed to of seriously disorientated him. "Which way do we go?"

"Left!" Neji called back in response pointing to a fork in the tunnels ahead of them. "There doesn't seem to be anything down there yet!"

As they ran down the long tunnel with the steady rush of water streaming after them, it occurred to Shikamaru slightly _too late_ that the tunnel to their left was a trap. It was showed a suspicious lack of activity for a group of four Nin that had just let the proverbial firework out of the box.

Mind you, genjutsu is tricky like that. One minute you're running across the floor and the next second you're waist deep in solid rock and stuck to the ceiling.

He could hear Kiba yelling for Akamaru to run somewhere behind his left ear but took no notice, all his attention was focused Naruto. He knew specifically, as if it were tattooed across his brain that he must protect him. He could feel the weight of the bomb dragging him head first towards an endless plummet, as if the universe had been ripped open beneath their heads and was just daring them to fall into it.

"We can break free!" Neji told them, as bodiless heads leered up at them from the darkness, snaking towards them with insatiable mouths.

"On three? One…t-"

"Three!" Shikamaru shouted over-riding Neji's countdown; he was sure he could sense something coming towards them, something big. He drove his kunai into the top of his hand, the pain recoiling him into reality and he fell face first into the hard stone.

"Naruto!" He yelled, but his friend was already lying next to him looking as dazed and dirty as ever, as was Kiba… in fact the only one who wasn't was…

A terrible blood curdling scream shattered the darkness around them, a huge demon with a bestial face stood leaning over Neji, it's mouth wide open. It had been careful, just carful enough to stand far enough away from the Nin so not to be within the range of his gentle fist technique. Not that that mattered now because it seemed as if Neji….

Beside him Shikamaru heard Naruto shout words he never heard, he just saw the whatever-it-was spit some sort of liquid straight into Neji's eyes. There was crimson pouring from around Neji's face as if he were crying blood, the skin bubbling horribly. It had spat …acid at him, Shikamaru thought. Naruto had already got to his feet and Kiba was stumbling after him as Naruto filled the tunnel with shadow clones, yelling at the top of his voice for the demon to _leave Neji the hell alone!_

They had been drawn, Shikamaru realized with a clawing sense of panic as he looked round, into a dead end. The route they _should have taken_ lay to their right, penetrating even deeper into the mountain, but the likelihood of them getting to that now… Especially considering that Neji probably couldn't see anymore…It was worse then the time Gaara had crushed Lee's legs.

"Wash it out of his eyes, get him to stand up. Support him if you have to, we need to get out of here!"

In the distance he could hear the angry roar of water rushing towards them, they had very little time it seemed, and every second wasted the ever-dwindling widow of escape narrowed.

"You son of a bitch, we're not leaving you." Shikamaru heard Kiba bark aggressively at Neji. "You can ride on Akamaru, he'll keep you safe and you still might be able to help us. You are a ninja aren't you?"

The mass of Naruto's shadow clones met the advancing hoard, in the pale light given from their luminescent vials he could see hundreds of pairs of eyes looking at them from out of the darkness. Gnashing teeth, long spider like hands, talons, and even some eyeless faces with gaping mouths.

He pulled a kunai from his Chuunin jacket, wishing for a larger object with which to defend himself with, but he knew that skill and cunning were unlikely to win a battle where the enemy overwhelms you with countless numbers. They were fighting a veritable swarm.

Naruto attacked with Kiba and Akamaru at his flank, Neji hanging onto the dog's back for dear life. Shikamaru bought up the rear; it was his duty to protect the bomb, to protect the people fleeing the mountains and above all to protect Konoha. They could detonate it here after all. They were probably deep enough to cause significant impact and close enough to the ocean to cause flooding if the worst came to the worst. It was a sacrifice all of them would be willing to make.

Shikamaru saw his friends drive back the hoard; the sheer force of their massed chakra attacks combined seemed to startle the demons. Naruto whether he cared to admit it or not always did brilliantly under pressure, and even now as he slammed into the fray with his shadow clones protecting him from all sides he cut great swathes in their numbers. Kiba was similar, what he lacked in finesse he made up for with raw power. His clan had a simple strategy: When the enemy attacks be ready and defeat them with superior power, superior stamina, and bring with you a partner that is loyal and in step with your every move.

Shikamaru saw Kiba beating a monstrous demon back, his friend evening daring to flash Shikamaru one of his trademark roguish smiles when he felt himself grabbed from around the knees and pushed forwards. Waiting there to meet him was a blackened face with red eyes and needle like teeth, and yet another to his left jumping for his neck, and swiping for his jugular with unnaturally serrated talons.

He threw himself to the ground, rolling first to the left and then to the right as the demon stabbed at him, its sharp talons sending sparks flying from the rock as it missed. He kicked out, catching the one with red eyes in the face causing it to squeal in pain. The other ran at him again, and he swerved to avoid it. He was slightly too slow this time as it caught his shoulder. Pain sizzled through him like lightening but it only served to sharpen his senses, he threw a handful of Shuriken at it and watched it leapt to avoid them. It landed clumsily unsure of its footing and he seized the moment. Throwing himself at it he pinned it to the ground and in one swift movement slit its throat, blood gargling up into his face as he went through a main artery.

The sudden rush of noise behind him warned him that the other one was up again, and spinning round he met it head on. As it collided with him, the impact throwing them both backwards he caught it with a blow to the torso so it slammed against the wall and he threw the bloody kunai straight through its head. As smooth as breathing his slid his hands back into the pockets of his jacket and withdrew another Kunai, other hand primed with chakra, ready to meet anything directly. From the corner of his eye he saw the other three Nin move to combine attacks; this would cut through the demons he thought, elated.

Then the unthinkable happened.

It only took a nanosecond, too fast for the naked eye to perceive. Kiba and Akamaru _faltered_, part of an unbreakable team something went wrong, something had been miscalculated, the move was _not right_. Kiba was flung in a sudden outburst of chakra _away_ from Akamaru, and Akamaru yelping, skidded into the fray with Neji on his back.

They were pounced upon immediately by the demons, hundreds of them it seemed. A never-ending black mountain writhing about in the tunnel, a predator with thousands of eyes and teeth and an insatiable appetite. Kiba howling angrily, a massive burst of chakra from him and Naruto combined plunged forwards. The attack parted the demons like the red sea. Sensing the anger of their quarry, the deadly menace in Kiba's eyes they ran, and the two of them dragged Akamaru out… but Neji…Neji was gone.

A cold panic gripped Shikamaru; he realized then what had happened.

"We have to go after him!" Naruto was saying as Kiba put his arms around Akamaru's neck, nuzzling his dog's ear.

"He might not be dead, we can still save him."

Kiba nodded getting to his feet and holding out his hand to Naruto, "We can make a quick push, I have some blood tablets we can take in my pocket. If we do it quickly we may be in with a good chance." He turned round to see Shikamaru advancing rapidly, his skin and clothes splattered with demon blood. "You with us Maru?"

"Get the hell away from him."

There was complete silence. There wasn't a trace of amusement or fondness on Shikamaru's face, and in the ghostly light of their vials he seemed almost ethereal and intangibly powerful.

"What's gotten into you?" Kiba asked, thoroughly perplexed as Shikamaru forced himself in between them. He shouldered Naruto away from him, kunai in his right hand pointed at Kiba and his left on Naruto chest as if he feared for Naruto to get any closer to their friend.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted, "What the hell? We don't have time for this! Neji…"

"Neji is dead, and if we're not careful we're all going to be in the next five minutes."

Naruto blinked at him, "What are you talking about?"

"When has Kiba Inuzuka ever mucked up a move with Akamaru, Naruto? When? In all the time you've known him has he ever so much as been a hair out of synch with that dog?"

He heard Naruto let out a quick exhalation of breath behind him and he watched as Kiba's eyes widened in horror.

"I'm not a doppelganger!" Kiba shouted at Shikamaru, trembling from head to toe in rage. "You think I did that on purpose to _kill_ Neji?"

"Yes." It was a statement that left no margin for error.

Kiba snorted derisively and threw his arms into the air, "You've gone mad then if that's what you think happened." He looked past Shikamaru and straight into Naruto's cornflower blue eyes, "The more time we waste standing here, the less likely Neji is to still be alive."

"Don't go with him Naruto, he'll kill you."

"Fuck sake's Maru, don't say that!"

"It's not right, you're not him. Kiba doesn't make mistakes like that, _not_ with Akamaru."

Kiba narrowed his eyes then at Shikamaru; it was the first time he'd ever looked at him without any warmth or friendship in them.

"Do what you like, I'm going after him."

"You're not going anywhere, move and I'll kill you."

"Fuck you."

"Shikamaru," Naruto murmured, pressing torso against his friend's back. "How do we know? It looks like Kiba, it smells like Kiba. It talks and walks like Kiba!"

"Because I _am_ Kiba you dunderhead!"

Shikamaru licked his dry lips; his legs tensed and ready to spring, his mind reeling through calculations and endless possibilities. He felt it in his gut that something was wrong, that dark feeling that was _never wrong_. His brown eyes were narrowed and Naruto didn't doubt for a second when he said he'd kill Kiba if he moved that he mean it.

"There's a jutsu," he said bringing his left hand forwards, palm open towards Kiba's face. "One that will show you if a person is possessed or not."

"Then do it!"

"We don't have time! Neji could be…"

"So you won't?"

"We are just pissing about here, when Neji has been…"

"You see he won't Naruto?" Shikamaru said gravely glancing back at the kitsune. "That's not suspicious at _all_ is it?"

Naruto too had drawn a kunai; his beautiful normally sunny face was tense and uncharacteristically grim.

"Kiba," he said in a quiet undertone, "Kiba please, prove him wrong."

"There's nothing to prove!" Kiba spat so angry he almost stamped his foot in rage, "I refuse to be subjected to this _test_. I haven't done anything wrong! I don't see anyone putting you in a brain scanner Shikamaru every time _you_ make a mistake!"

"Kiba!" Shikamaru shouted, there was a rumbling din rising and surging through the tunnels, they could all hear it coming. "Don't _make me_ do this, I _will_ kill you."

"I am your _friend_," Kiba yelled back at him there were tears of frustration in his amber eyes; he seemed completely oblivious to everything around him but Shikamaru and Naruto. "How can you do this to me? How can you doubt me? I am your friend!"

They all moved simultaneously as a wave of saltwater rushed down the tunnel hitting them full blast with an impact like a rampaging bull. Naruto made for Kiba as if to force him into the jutsu whilst Kiba, in a motion that could have been interpreted for a lunge forwards or simply being forced over by the wall of water that had impacted onto the back of his legs was met full on by Shikamaru. They tumbled into each other; best friends suddenly pitted against one another as fearsome enemies, both going down into the water.

Visibility all but vanished under the surf as they were enclosed in foam and dirty water, the salt stinging their eyes as they fought each other in a tangle of limbs. Kiba threw Shikamaru bodily off him, and then made to swing with both hands interlocked at his head, Shikamaru dodged, slipping to his knees in the now foot deep water and rammed the Kunai with all his force into Kiba's shoulder. There was a noise of the blade ripping through muscle and scraping bone as Kiba threw himself back away from the knife-edge. He leant to one side like an injured animal, his other hand grasping at his injury whilst his other arm lay motionless at his side. His eyes were dark and furious, but there was also something else that Shikamaru couldn't make out, something in there that just didn't belong. Something…evil?

"Naruto, pin him down and I can perform the jutsu."

He braced himself, waiting for the familiar blur of yellow to whizz past him but nothing happened.

"Naruto?"

Nothing.

Fear reared up in Shikamaru like an ugly snake, never quite taking his eyes from Kiba he turned slowly to look behind him. He saw Naruto standing in the churning water, his hand to his neck as he removed a long metal dart from his skin. Some feet away Akamaru's skin floated on the water's surface like an absurd costume cast aside after a fancy dress ball and something was stepping out it, gathering its limbs and preparing to jump. Something that was no creature he had ever seen before.

Shikamaru saw Naruto's eyes lose focus, an expression of surprise still etched across his face as his body went limp, crashing into the water like a rag doll. The 'thing' standing in the remains of Kiba's dog leapt at Naruto, it seemed to be made only of smoke and darkness bound into a physical frame as it dragged him through the floor, through solid stone and suddenly, they were both gone.

The water lapped against the stone, bubbling slightly over the place where Naruto had just been. For a moment the silence stretched, but then in the distance Shikamaru could hear the rumbling of another wave racing towards them. He saw the expression change on Kiba's face, something not human was controlling his friend's body, there was something so unnatural about his eyes he didn't know why he hadn't seen it earlier. Without a backwards glance he ran away from Kiba, into the darkness. And like a monstrous shadow, Kiba pursued.

* * *

A/N: I am not quite sure how this got to be such a long chapter!


End file.
